The Portuguese defender could not hide his emotions as Los Blancos took a major stride towards Champions League semi-finals scorig three away goals.
Real Madrid broke through APOEL’s defences in the final twenty minutes of the match, hitting the back of the net three times with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ricardo-c30950 Kaka content with one.
After the match, the Cypriot side’s manager, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ivan-Jovanovic-c17273, conceded defeat in their bid for an unprecedented semi-final appearance. The Serbian tactician acknowledged the titanic task ahead of them in the second leg at the Bernabeu, as he stated the obvious.
Real Madrid’s Portuguese defender, Pepe, echoed the sentiments of the much travelled tactician as he praised their disciplined performance.
However, the former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Porto-c39186 stopper cautioned against complacency and asked his teammates to retain their focus for the second leg affair at home. Pepe highlighted APOEL’s trajectory in the competition to support his statement.
The reckless centre-back was taken aback by the organized performance of APOEL who managed to keep Madrid attackers at bay for the duration of the match.
Reflecting on the key contributions in the European fixture, the 29-year-old attributed Madrid’s success to the introduction of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Marcelo-c23554 and Kaka after the hour mark.
"We have yet to play one more game in this tie, but we've taken a major step towards winning it. We'll have to be ready and concentrate hard in the return leg at home to avoid surprises. We must respect APOEL because they've eliminated other good teams,"
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pepe-c29670 was quoted on Real Madrid's official website.
"We gave a good performance. APOEL were organised in defence, but we had a good start and kept possession. The substitutions helped and our forwards did well in the final minutes of the game.”
The experienced defender also took out time to talk about Real Madrid’s enforce media block-out after refereeing decisions resulted in back-to-back stalemates against Malaga and Villarreal.
Pepe explained that Los Blancos took the steps to relax away from media attention and to make sure they are not misunderstood for their sentiments.
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