Maresca was delighted with the collective resolve shown during a demanding European away assignment, highlighting the quality and depth available across his squad. Assessing the overall performance post-match, the Italian tactician told Amazon Prime: “I think we could’ve scored more goals, especially in the first half but overall I think we deserved to win the game.
“We created enough chances to win the game. We didn’t concede a lot. It’s normal to come here and concede some chances because it’s normal, so overall happy with the performance. I think I am lucky because all the squad is good players, for a manager it is easy because you can give minutes to all of them, and tonight I think the guys that were inside were very good.”
Turning his focus to Bouaddi’s unflappable display on the big stage, Maresca reserved special praise for the teenager: “The good thing is that from Erling [Haaland], Ruben [Dias], Mateo [Kovacic] you expect how to manage this game but he was never in panic, Ayyoub Bouaddi. He was very good and I think the performance was unbelievable.”