Aaron Ramsey's long goodbye to the club continued in style on Thursday as he scored the opening goal in our win against Napoli.
The Wales international spoke to the media after the match and you can read a full transcript below:
on how he sums the performance up…
To keep a clean sheet and score a couple of goals was a lovely place to start the first leg, so we’re delighted with that. We suffered a lot - they’re a very good team and we had to dig in tonight. It’s a great start to the quarter-final.
on if we could have scored more…
Yeah, of course. I should have scored in the second half, but these things happen sometimes. We’re delighted that we kept a clean sheet and scored a couple of goals. We go into the second leg with that bit of a cushion, but we know from past experience that it’s a difficult place to go.
on his opening goal and the importance of scoring early…
It’s always important to start these European games well and get the first goal, otherwise it’s difficult. We’re up against some of the best teams in Europe and in the second half we suffered a lot, but we dug in and showed great [resilience]. We dug in and helped each other out. We’re just looking forward to the second leg now.
on what the performance says about the team…
I think Napoli were unlucky not to go through in the Champions League. They’ve proved that they’re a quality team and are second in Serie A, so they’re a tough team to play against. From a few years back, we know that they’re a tough team to play against and it will be a difficult place to go. We have to be ready. We’ve given ourselves a great opportunity in the first leg - now it’s important to stick together and hopefully see out this quarter-final.
on our away form…
We have won away from home this season, so we are capable of doing it. We haven’t done so [often] of late but we’re confident that we can [put that right] towards the end of the season. There’s six games left in the Premier League and hopefully we can finish the job off and be in the top four and also get through to the semi-final.
on a potential last game for us coming in the Europa League final…
I haven’t though about that but hopefully. We’ve started this first leg well so hopefully we can finish the job and get ourselves in the hat for the next round.
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