Mourinho points to Madrid's first-half dominance
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Article summary
José Mourinho said "a great opening 45 minutes" was key to Real Madrid CF's victory at Olympique Lyonnais, although Rémi Garde felt the home side had chances to steal a draw.
Article top media content
Article body
Rémi Garde, Lyon coach
Madrid were very strong and the match was tough for us, although we might have got a draw. They have a significant amount of individual talent as well as being a team who work very well together with a lot of combinations that pose problems for their opponents. This makes their organisation very difficult to cope with, even if we did at times.
Over the two matches the difference between the two teams has been apparent. That's not a surprise as our club has entered a new era in terms of economy. In the second game we had opportunities for a draw. If we had done it, we would not say now that beating Madrid is impossible. The objective now is to win the last two matches and hope Ajax don't defeat Madrid.
José Mourinho, Madrid coach
We played well tonight. We created a lot of chances in the first half. If we had taken some the game would have been safe a lot sooner. Having said that, we put in a great opening 45 minutes and settled it with the second goal. Winning here and reaching 12 points means we are through to the next round. We would now like to finish top of the group, which, you would think, gives you an advantage in the next round.
We are on the right track and looking to finish the group stage strongly as we did last season. This year we're putting in good performances and trying to win playing good football home and away. We're doing that at the moment; let's see what happens later. For me, it's not important that [Cristiano] Ronaldo reached 100 goals; I know players like these milestones but we are here to get results for the team.