Lyon manager Remi Garde has declared that he is proud of his team despite watching them crash out of the Europa League at the hands of Juventus.

The Ligue 1 outfit bowed out of the competition at the quarter-final stage following a 3-1 aggregate defeat to the Italians, but gave their opponents a scare in the second leg.

"I must say I am proud of my players," he told reporters. "At half time we thought that we were getting close to a huge achievement because we only needed to score one more goal and we knew we would have chances after the break.

"It is always disappointing when you go out of a competition, but we have to recognise Juve's superiority - even if over the two legs we did not see that much difference between the teams."

The draw for the semi-finals of the Europa League takes place on Friday.