Mourinho content with Inter lead

José Mourinho said FC Internazionale Milano's 1-0 win against PFC CSKA Moskva in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final was an "important result" for his side though he believed the margin of victory should have been bigger than that provided by Diego Milito's 65th-minute strike. His opposite number Leonid Slutsky felt CSKA had not threatened enough in attack and had his defence to thank for a score that "keeps us in with a chance".

José Mourinho, Inter coach
I said this would be a tough game and the first half proved I was right. CSKA kept a lot of players behind the ball and they defended very well. Before the break we didn't play at our best, then we scored in the second half and the game changed. We had several chances to score again and the game could have ended 3-0 for us. Things went differently, but we won 1-0 and that is an important result.

We have a slight advantage, but we face a hard task in Moscow next week. CSKA is a better team than the one we saw tonight, as they showed against Sevilla. Anyway we will look ahead to that game with belief as we showed we can play good football. It's a win and we got the result, so with a goal in the second leg we can be pretty much secure of qualification. In addition we'll have both Lucio and Thiago Motta back.

Leonid Slutsky, CSKA coach
Unfortunately we did not manage to perform in attack. We knew Inter would leave space, but we could not exploit it. We gave the ball away too often which put a lot of pressure on our back line, though the defence looked quite confident tonight. It is difficult to remain focused for the full 90 minutes under such pressure and that was the reason we conceded that goal.

Anyway the score leaves us the chance to play a better game in Moscow. Neither Inter nor our previous rivals underestimated us. I don't believe we made it to this stage because other teams underestimated us. The 1-0 scoreline is comfortable for the winners because if they score again the other side has to reply with three goals and if they concede everything just starts from the scratch. But this result keeps us in with a chance.