Atlético duo insist Milan tie is far from over

AC Milan hit the woodwork twice before losing 1-0 at home to Club Atlético de Madrid in their UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg – but more than bad luck it was a case of facing a great goalkeeper as Thibaut Courtois got a crucial touch to both those Rossoneri efforts. The Belgian international, however, believes there is still work to do in order to qualify for the quarter-finals. "It's not over yet," he told UEFA.com.

Thibaut Courtois, Atlético goalkeeper
It was a very important victory from a really difficult game. There was a great atmosphere in the stadium, it's a difficult place to play. I think we suffered in the first half, but after half-time we altered our tactics a bit, played better and finally scored. It's a good result ahead of the second leg.

I think I made some good saves, the one from the header [by Andrea Poli] was difficult because he was very close. I was good on my feet and had a good reflex to push it against the post.

[Diego Costa] is really important for us, he scores a lot of goals and it's massive that he scored today. It was a corner that a Milan player touched on and he was at the back post, as always, to execute a really good header. It was a nice victory here, but it's not over yet.

We have to be careful and play like we did today. We cannot say the tie is finished because it will be another hard game – they will come to Madrid trying to push hard to score a goal. We have to try to keep another clean sheet in order to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Diego Godín, Atlético defender
It was a very good result for us – we won, scored an away goal and are now in a good position ahead of the return in Madrid. It's true we didn't have many opportunities tonight but we took the one we had and that's what counts.

Milan played well in the first half and had a few chances thanks to the quality of their players but we responded well and again managed not to concede, which is very important in this competition. At the end we won and in football the most important thing is to win games.

Is it over now? Not at all. We really respect our opponents and there is still the return leg to play, so it's not over at all. Yes, we have an advantage because we have home advantage now but the tie is still open and we will have to work hard to reach the quarter-finals.