Kaká vindicated as Madrid overpower Ajax

AFC Ajax made a bright start to their Group D encounter at Real Madrid CF but eventually succumbed to a 3-0 defeat. Admitting he is enjoying his best spell since transferring from AC Milan, Kaká – who scored one and set up another – said his best is yet to come while Ajax's Siem de Jong lamented his team's inability to capitalise on their early pressure.

Kaká, Real Madrid attacker
I feel physically well and am eager to keep playing. I am determined to succeed here and I think I will. My team-mates are helping me a lot and we achieved a great victory in an important game tonight. Little by little I am getting better. In the past few matches things have been coming off for me and that makes me happy. I think what was shown tonight was that [Mesut] Özil and I can play together. He is a very intelligent player. We have won six very important points [in Group D] so far and it's important that we now look to seal our passage through to the next stage. The next two games against Lyon will be important in achieving that goal. I think that I am enjoying my best spell with Real Madrid, above all because I feel I am in good shape. There were times here when I was playing 45 minutes and feeling spent. Now I feel comfortable after playing a full game.

Iker Casillas, Real Madrid goalkeeper
These are the types of games that we should be winning. Ajax proved themselves to be worthy opponents from the start when they looked to create chances and control the game. We were good tonight; Kaká was very good. Counterattacks are one of our strong points. We are capable of breaking out at pace while controlling the ball with one-touch passing. It helps us to create a lot of chances like our first goal tonight, which was a nice one. We will now be looking to win the rest of our home games and want to do well in the back-to-back matches against Lyon we have coming up.

Siem de Jong, Ajax midfielder
We started very well and had chances to score. We looked to put them under a lot of pressure but they were eventually able to counterattack. We improved on our performance here last year when we made a lot of mistakes. Having said that it was a little sad for us to see them easing up when they went 3-0 ahead. They are so quick when they get the ball; they made it really difficult for us at times. Our manager told us we did well but we needed to pressurise more. He told us we deserved a goal. We will now be looking to win our next two games against Dinamo Zagreb and try to get a good result in Lyon. We want to continue in the Champions League but failing that we will try to qualify for the Europa League.

Christian Eriksen, Ajax midfielder
We did better than last year, of course. We had our chances but we were playing against Real Madrid and they are not considered a small team. When we lost the ball they were very quick to get to our area; you saw that a lot of times, especially with their first goal where they began by winning possession in their half and within what seemed like two seconds they were in our box. I think everyone was a little bit surprised that we had the chances we did at the beginning of this game but unfortunately we didn't manage to convert any of them.