Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho was relieved to be through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League after a strong but unspectacular performance in the 4-1 win over CSKA Moscow.
Two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and one apiece from Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema were enough to see Real cruise through 5-2 on aggregate, but Mourinho was particularly pleased with the performance of Kaka as he set the tone in midfield.
He said: "I thought Kaka was fantastic, he spent the best years of his career in Italy but never has he worked so hard as he is doing just now. When you work as hard as he did it is normal that after 65 or 70 minutes you start to tire but I thought he was exceptional and the exchanges between he and (Mesut) Ozil were the best we produced in the first-half."
The game could have panned out very differently had Seydou Doumbia taken an early chance for the visitors but Mourinho wasn't overly concerned with his side's start to the game and insisted that at this level every opponent has quality.
"We suffered just as much as I expected, not more," he said. "I knew it was going to be difficult when the first leg left the tie still open. I knew the rival and I knew that it wasn't going to be easy and that is why I liked the maturity shown by the team. Without doing anything otherworldly we dominated, played in their half with a lot of maturity and the only uneasy moment came with the reaction of the crowd when they scored to make it 3-1."
The only negative of the evening for Mourinho was a yellow card for Xabi Alonso that will see him miss the first-leg of the quarter-final, but the former Chelsea boss is confident that Esteban Granero has the qualities to deputise for the Spanish international.
"Xabi is an important player for us but at the moment we have a great squad and there is no problem if Granero and (Sami) Khedira have to play together, we won't cry over losing one player."
CSKA manager Leonid Slutski meanwhile refused to blame Sergei Chepchugov for his side's defeat despite the goalkeeper making a glaring error that led to Real's second goal.
Chepchugov allowed Ronaldo's effort to slip through his grasp and into the net when the tie was still in the balance but Slutski believes his side committed to many errors all over the pitch to advance.
He said: "I don't like to blame Chepchugov because he had a good game other than that goal. Not only he but other players with more experience have made mistakes so I won't concentrate on one player. To obtain a result against a team like Real Madrid we had to play our best game, almost without any errors. Here they punish mistakes that on other days you get away with."
Source: PA
