Pulis pleased by European progress

Stoke City boss Tony Pulis praised his side for progressing to the Europa League last 32 despite losing to Besiktas on Wednesday.

Stoke had already qualified from Group E but lost top spot in the group after Besiktas came from behind to win 3-1 in Istanbul.

But for Stoke – who are playing European football for the first time since 1974-75 – qualifying in itself was a big achievement as they progressed to the knockout stages of the competition where they could face the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Ajax or Porto.

“It was a really good performance,” Pulis told reporters despite the loss.

“The first quarter of an hour we were a little bit on the back foot, we looked like a team who hadn’t played together for a while.”

“Then the goal went in and we looked very comfortable. For all their possession in the first half, we had the three best chances with the goal, the one that Cameron (Jerome) had when he was played through and when Ric (Fuller) hit the post. We’ve gone down with a bit of glory today.”

The match was also notable for the amount of missiles thrown at Stoke players by a disruptive Turkish crowd.

Ricardo Fuller was pictured holding a lighter that had been hurled at him after scoring while referee Marcin Borski moved to take the players off after Jermaine Pennant was pelted with coins and more lighters.

The game was not paused though and after the game Stoke, surprisingly, offered no complaints.

“We won’t be complaining to anyone. We’re Stoke and we don’t complain. Hopefully we’ll have benefited from all this,” Pulis said.

“I was getting pelted with everything… lighters, coins, I was thinking of picking one up and putting it in my sock! I’ve played here before so I know what the atmosphere’s like,” Pennant said.