Mourinho plays down last-eight berth

Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho said anything less than his side’s 3-0 win over Lyon on Wednesday would have been a ‘failure’.

Real secured their first trip to the Champions League quarter-finals in seven years at the Bernabeu on Wednesday, advancing on a 4-1 aggregate thanks to goals from Marcelo, Karim Benzema and Angel Di Maria.

Mourinho, who is one step closer to his stated aim of winning the European title three times with three different clubs, said there was nothing unusual about Real’s trip to the last eight.

“We are Real Madrid, it is normal to be in next round,” the Portuguese manager said.

“That was not the case in recent years. Lyon are a great team, one of the best in this season’s Champions League, but we deserved to win.”

“We produced the complete match. We deserve to be in the next round. We controlled the game.”

“If we had not qualified it would have been a failure because Real Madrid are always thinking about going further than the last 16.”

“Now we have to wait for the draw but we know there are only great teams left.”

Asked if he was hoping to avoid any teams in particular in Friday’s quarter-final draw, Mourinho said: “I wouldn’t like to play against Inter Milan or Chelsea for emotional reasons.”

“If I have to face those that were once my people I will do, but it will require me to be more psychologically ready than if I was facing a team that is not in my heart.”

Lyon manager Claude Puel conceded his side had been beaten by the better team, and said the challenge for Lyon now is not to let the disappointment affect their Ligue 1 title tilt.

“Congratulations to Real Madrid, we could not match them tonight,” Puel said.

“They put pressure on us from the outset and kept us down. We failed to raise the level of our game. Our start in the second half was good but it ended with us conceding two stupid goals.”

“We helped them do what they do well ? utilise space. We were not relaxed. We were unprecise with lots of moves. We were nervous. I felt my team were very tense and this influenced their game.”

“Hugo (Lloris, Lyon goalkeeper) kept us afloat but their second goal hurt us a lot.”

“Physically and mentally we now have to recover. We know that after the Champions League it’s always hard to perform well in the league.”