Fenerbahce left-back Reto Ziegler has said that he is "proud" for both his side and Turkish football as a whole after what he felt was a convincing win over Benfica.

The Turkish side recorded a 1-0 win in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final, but Ziegler felt that they deserved a larger winning margin.

"Today we are really proud, not just for Fenerbahce, but for the whole of Turkish football," UEFA.com quotes Ziegler as saying. "We totally deserved to win, after I think what everybody could see was a really good quality game on our part; 2-0 obviously would have been a better score for us, but we can be satisfied with tonight's win.

"We shouldn't get carried away – we have to keep calm. This was just one game out of two. In Portugal we'll need to play just as well in order to realise our dream, which is to make it all the way to the final.

"Benfica are a really strong team, especially at home. We have to respect our opponents. Today, we took a good step towards the final, but the decisive game will be the return."

The sides play their return leg in Portugal next Thursday night.