Madrid reflect on 'another good performance'

Pepe enthused about a "great performance from the whole team", while Sergio Ramos insisted Real Madrid CF are not looking beyond the return leg despite their 6-1 defeat of FC Schalke 04. 

After Real Madrid CF became the first club to score six goals away from home in the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League, defenders Sergio Ramos, Pepe and Marcelo were full of praise for the Merengues' first-leg display against round-of-16 opponents FC Schalke 04.

Though Ramos would rather have come away with a clean sheet, Pepe reflected on a "great performance" from front to back, while Marcelo insisted there would be no celebrating until Madrid's place in the last eight is set in stone.

Sergio Ramos, Madrid defender

We're very happy with this result because we always want to score as many as we can. We've given ourselves a major advantage for the second leg, but we still have that game to play.

Schalke will want to present themselves in a different light at our place. They had a bad day at the office and are going to force us into another good performance in the return. They could have scored one or two at the start, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Myself and Iker [Casillas] would have preferred to keep a clean sheet, but they scored, so at least there was something for the home fans to cheer. In terms of what we can achieve this season, we're just taking it one game at a time, but of course we set ourselves big targets.

Pepe, Madrid defender

To be honest, I didn't think a game like that was possible at this stage of the competition, but we put in a strong performance from the very start and all the goals were well worked. The lads up front did really well, but it wasn't just them – it was a great performance from the whole team. We're all physically fit, mentally strong and have the composure to win games like these. That's what makes the difference at this level.

Marcelo, Madrid left-back

We're delighted with the result. Of course, it looks like we'll be going through, but we have a lot of respect for Schalke and won't be celebrating anything until after the second leg. We'll go into that game with the same passion and determination we showed tonight.

We went into tonight's game with the aim of scoring as many goals as possible to set ourselves up for the second leg. We played really well, but Schalke are still a very good and dangerous team with a lot of quality. We're going to have to give it everything in the second leg. Even after tonight's result, we're far from satisfied.