Jose Mourinho applauded his team’s defensive display as Real Madrid routed Galatasaray, 3-0, in the first-leg of their UEFA Champions League Quarterfinal series at theSantiago Bernabeu in Madrid. Goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuaín put Los Blancos within touching distance of the semifinal.
“We know they have a good team and fantastic strikers, but we played very well defensively,” Mourinho said after the game. “From my point of view we defended better than weattacked. We could have scored more goals, and we let some attacking positions go to waste, but defensively we analyzed the opposition very well.”
Winger Angel DiMaria added: “We are very happy with the win and for the three goals. At home we are strong but we have to be careful in the second leg. We know they are strong at home, and they almostalways win and score goals.”
Goalscorer Higuaín: “We knew we had to play the second leg in Istanbul and it is very difficult to play there. So we came out very strong today. We arevery happy with the 3-0.”