Burley thankful for Sereni

Sereni joined Ipswich from Sampdoria

Ipswich manager George Burley was full of praise for goalkeeper Matteo Sereni after the Italian goalkeeper kept the Blues' Uefa Cup hopes alive in the second round first leg tie against Helsingborg.

The £4.5m summer signing from Sampdoria made a series of stunning stops to preserve Ipswich's 27-match unbeaten record in home European contests.

"We were grateful to our goalkeeper. He made some quality saves," said Burley.

"They will probably think they should have had the advantage but he showed some phenomenal agility."

Sereni has been outstanding since he came to the club

George Burley

Burley said that he was disappointed with the way Ipswich defended.

"I suppose it's a better scoreline than when we played Torpedo Moscow in the last round here.

"A goalless draw is better than 1-1 and we always knew it was going to be tough against Helsingborg, a team that beat Inter Milan last season, and a side that defends in numbers and breaks quickly."

Helsingborg manager Nanne Bergstrand was disappointed with the fact that his side could not get past Sereni.

"I was very pleased with the way we managed to play the match tactically," he said.

"But I was disappointed that we couldn't score. I think we had enough chances to score at least one goal and I would have been more happy with 1-0 or 1-1 - that might have been better.

"It was important for us, when we came to play a Premier League team, that we were very tight in defence.

"We knew the first 15 minutes would be very, very hard and they had a lot of corners in that period.

"But after that we came into the match just as I thought we should.

"You have to be tight when you play these kind of matches against English teams and although we are pleased it is still only half-time in the tie."