"My players' sacrifice and performance were fantastic. This is an important victory, earned against a strong opponent that has a very good home record. We even lost our goalkeeper and made another make his debut in La Liga. This also forced us to take off an important player like Di Maria, who can always hurt opponents with his speed, and to have only two real substitutions. Too many things were against us and I guess the whole country thought we wouldn't win, but we did and even deserved to do so with more goals."
Had you trained the option to keep a player down?
"My players read the game very well. I spoke to Xabi after the red card and they all understood what I wanted. We didn't experience problems against a very good team that has fast forwards who always play on the verge of an offside."
Barcelona has no rest this week...
"I'm nobody in Spanish football, but I would like to express an opinion: French, German, Italian and Portuguese teams have three days off when they have to play a European match. I ask for this to happen here, not just for Real Madrid, but for Spanish football as a whole. Teams in other countries have this advantage and we don't."
The advantage of Barcelona is enough?
"I will not change my discourse now that we are two points closer. Barcelona have a five-point lead and I would like to be in that situation. If I were Barcelona, I would feel comfortable with such a lead. If mathematics say it is possible for us to win we'll have to believe in that. When I was leading the table in other championships, I used to be asked if I felt any pressure, and I didn't because I depended on myself. Pressure comes from lagging behind because you cannot afford to make mistakes."
How do you rate the game that Pepe and Adebayor have made?
"Pepe played a fantastic game and Adebayor did the work of three players. They all did sacrifices. Adan had an unexpected debut and was fantastic. He looked like a veteran. I wish to congratulate Antonio and all the goalkeepers that train with us. I also wish to congratulate our goalkeeper coach, who does real miracles and who, with all due respect to all goalkeeper coaches, I regard as the best in the world."
Do you still like Mateu Lahoz after this game?
"The referee may have been wrong to send off Casillas and for not awarding us a penalty, but I like the intesnity and high level of play he allows. I obviously don't like to lose players, but he is a great referee who has a right to make mistakes, if he made mistakes that is. He doesn't like divers and my team has none. That's why I like him."
What do you think about the comments of Joan Gaspart (former Barcelona president) who said you earned 60 euros in Barcelona?
"No comments. I was poor in Portugal and came to Barcelona to remain poor."
