Mauricio Pochettino says he is immensely proud of his Tottenham side for overcoming the odds in Group B and securing the prospect of Champions League football at the club's new stadium in the new year.
Spurs looked set for an early exit after collecting just one point from their opening three European fixtures. But they went on to grab late home wins over PSV Eindhoven and Inter Milan.
On Tuesday, an 85th-minute equaliser from Lucas Moura earned a 1-1 draw against Barcelona at the Camp Nou and a place in the round of 16.
"I'm so happy, so proud," Pochettino told a news conference. "I remember after Eindhoven nobody believe in us. They said it was mission impossible, but we're here. We're in the last 16 and it's a massive achievement for the club.
"I didn't say it, others did. I said all is possible in football if you have belief, faith and the quality.
"I'm so happy for the fans that are here and for our fans around the world. It's a massive boost for the club and to have the idea to play in the next stage next year in the new stadium is a massive motivation for us.
"To see how the players celebrated inside with the staff, I think it was the first time in four-and-a-half years at the club that we feel something special, and the connection was amazing. Now we need to be clever in the way we manage that energy that we've created tonight."
A draw was enough for Tottenham because Inter Milan only managed a 1-1 of their own at home against bottom-side PSV.
That match in Italy finished a few minutes after Spurs' game at the Camp Nou, leaving Pochettino and his players with a nervy wait after they had done their job.
"I had something like that in Argentina when I was a player," said Pochettino. "We finished our game and we were waiting for River Plate and Velez Sarsfield, and if River had scored they would have taken the title off our hands.
"So we were waiting there on the pitch thinking about what was going on. That is the only time I had lived something similar. When we finished today, there was a little bit of confusion. We didn't know if the game in Italy had finished, we didn't know if we could celebrate or not.
"These situations help us feel that football is one of the most beautiful sports in the world -- the passion and how that keeps you alive, and how the result can generate all sort of emotions. That is the beautiful thing about football. But we also suffer sometimes, needless to say.
"It was so difficult to manage the last 10 minutes. The players who came on from the bench, they knew about the score from Inter, but of course it's so difficult to translate how you feel.
"You must win the game, you must score the second goal but, in the same time, if you concede a second goal and you lose the game maybe it's 2-1 to Barcelona and right now we're talking in a different way. That's why it was so difficult for the players to manage everything inside. But I think the effort was fantastic."