"It's a very important result for the team and for the club. I'm very happy about it, so congratulations to the team because they worked for the victory," the Dutchman was quoted saying on Skysports.com.

The Catalan giants claimed a 1-0 victory courtesy to a 43rd minute strike from Yaya Toure.

"Before the game I said that Schalke are a very tough team and are difficult to beat. It's not that they have single, individual players, but as a team they change very fast between defending and an offensive game."

"It was difficult to stop that kind of play so we had to work really hard to win the game," added Rijkaard.

The Blaugrana maintained an unbeaten run in this year's challenge but now they'll have a tough task against Manchester United in the semi-finals.

"I'm looking forward to it and we'll have to prepare ourselves for, hopefully, two very exciting games."