Carlo Ancelotti:
I am completely satisfied with the match, everyone did fantastically. We did everything right; we recovered the ball well and were very aggressive and compact. My wish would be to have a team like tonight all of the time. We won the match by playing well. Our team showed that we can play matches like this and we have to do that as consistently as possible because now every match is important.
Atletico Madrid's coach, Cholo Simeone, seemed to be resigned after the game. Congratulating Real on a good performance, he lamented his team's foul luck, with two deflected goals conceded. He wasn't willing to attribute the loss entirely to bad luck, however. "Our link-up play was poor. We tried but found we couldn't create chances."
It would be reasonable to consider the return leg a formality, but Koke Resurrección, of Atleti, would appear to be of the opinion that the tie is not over. Dismissing one of the goals as lucky, and explaining his team had not played as they intended: "We'll give everything at the Calderón for our fans."
Real Madrid's Ángel Di María is taking nothing for granted at any rate. He remarked that the team had had to match Atleti's intensity in order to win and that Real Madrid went into the game determined to work harder than the opposition. "We'll have to do the same in their stadium." On his splendid efforts to score the third goal (albeit a deflected effort): "It's a goal, lucky or not!"
Finally, Luka Modric echoed his coach's satisfaction. "When we play like this, we are very difficult to beat."