'Outstanding' Bayern have Kroos cooing

After scoring what turned out to be a spectacular winner in FC Bayern München's Group F victory over Valencia CF, Toni Kroos told UEFA.com that Bayern have a stronger squad than last season as they bid to make amends for May's final disappointment. Javi Martínez relished his debut in the competition, while Ricardo Costa and Diego Alves pointed to a slow start as crucial in Valencia's demise.

Toni Kroos, Bayern midfielder
Anyone who knows me knows I'm not short of confidence. Goals are obviously important, especially in the position I'm playing now [behind the striker]. I'm scoring at the moment, so long may it continue.

We knew we'd have a tough time against our biggest rivals in the group, but we were outstanding in the first half. We were direct, aggressive and created chances. We didn't give anything away and fully deserved to take the lead.

In the second half there were about 20 minutes where we weren't as good. Valencia didn't really have any chances but we took our foot off the pedal slightly. Then we scored a second to basically settle it. We'll have to look at what went wrong for the goal, but that can happen and overall we played very well.

We want to dominate the group stage as we did last season, then we'll see what happens. We've got a team capable of going far. We've got more strength in depth, so I'm very optimistic about the Champions League this season.

Javi Martínez, Bayern midfielder
I feel very good here in the city, with the club. Everything is great. My team-mates are very friendly, things couldn't be better right now. I can say some words in German – I've had just a week of classes but I'm learning. I can speak English and everyone speaks that here so it's OK. Mario Gomez and a few others speak Spanish too, so there's no problem communicating. That helps a lot.

The training is very different here, they have different methods. The coach is also different to what I've experienced so far in football, but the coaching team are excellent and they're helping me to improve and to integrate into the team.

I think it's normal to have butterflies. The day I don't get nervous before a game is the day I'll stop playing, especially when it's my first match in the Champions League and my first start at Bayern.

Ricardo Costa, Valencia defender
Bayern are a great club and a great team, but we had some good moments. We made only two or three mistakes but conceded two goals. It's important that we win our next match now and get the three points.

The first half was very difficult for us. We didn't have much of the ball, which isn't the Valencia way. However, in the second half we showed more attitude. Their opening goal made us more direct and we started to create opportunities.

Everything is possible from here. To come to Bayern München and lose is nothing out of the ordinary, but obviously we always play to win. They had a difficult time beating us and if we'd applied a bit more pressure and played more directly throughout it would have been a different game.

Diego Alves, Valencia goalkeeper
The game didn't go as we wanted. I don't think we played very well, especially in the first half. We improved a bit in the second period but even then it wasn't the Valencia we know. We lost the ball too much and when you're playing away from home at a place like this against a team like Bayern, that just makes things harder.

We need to look at where we went wrong and put it right. We have a league game coming up next and we're concentrating all our efforts on that. Bayern are among the favourites to reach the final. We weren't able to find our best form and now we have to work hard to improve.