Internazionale 2-5 Schalke

Schalke 04 coach Ralf Rangnick admitted that had anybody told him his side would beat FC Internazionale Milano 5-2 he ""would have had him declared crazy"" as he reflected on a career high. It leaves the UEFA Champions League holders with a mountain to climb next Wednesday and, coming after Saturday's 3-0 derby defeat by AC Milan, a deflated Leonardo acknowledged his side must rediscover their poise.
Ralf Rangnick, Schalke coach We are not in the semi-finals just yet, but we have a pretty big chance now. We know we have to digest this first, before we can fully appreciate it. Even at 3-2 and more so at 4-2 and after the second yellow for Chivu I was certain we would not lose anymore. In the end, we could have scored even more. It is surely the best game of my career. Had someone told us before the match that we would beat Inter by three goals, we would have had him declared crazy.
We saw Saturday's game here and how much space AC Milan were given so we decided to start with José Manuel Jurado, to play football. If you try to just defend against a team like Inter, you are asking for trouble. Still, the first half was incredible: it could have been 5-5 at half-time.
With
[Klaas-Jan] Huntelaar sidelined it was clear we needed a solution for the position of central forward and Edu needs to play there; he is not a winger. He got a real chance tonight and took it. Today, we can celebrate a bit, but then we have to focus on Saturday.
Leonardo, Inter coach It has been a very difficult week in every sense: first the derby knockout, now this heavy defeat against Schalke. Tonight's game started in the best possible fashion and it would have been difficult to predict what was to come. Early in the second half we missed a couple of chances and immediately Schalke scored their third.
They had six or seven shots and scored five goals, so in that we can feel hard done by. After their third and fourth goals responding became difficult, especially with ten men, and in the end we lacked balance, as we did on Saturday against Milan. We played a different game tonight, changing several things, but still that was missing.
It's difficult to think about mounting a recovery in the second leg, but we'll try to capture the best possible result. Unfortunately, the crucial period of the season has come at the wrong time for us. It took a lot of effort to climb the league standings and Inter always play to win: it's the only way we know.
Real Madrid 4-0 Tottenham
Though Real Madrid CF took a giant step towards a first UEFA Champions League semi-final since 2002, José Mourinho was full of sympathy for opposite number Harry Redknapp after the Spanish team's 4-0 first-leg win. Redknapp said Tottenham Hotspur FC needed ""a miracle"" once Peter Crouch was sent off early on, while he also bemoaned the pre-match loss of Aaron Lennon to illness.
José Mourinho, Madrid coach At this level it is very difficult for a team to play for so long with ten men. I played Barcelona with ten and you can only defend. They couldn't really do much more. We fully deserved this score but I feel sorry because I know the situation when a team plays with ten and they are unable to play the match they want; it is mission impossible. We are not in the semi-finals yet.
It's very important to have players returning. Injured players and suspensions are important. With suspensions you cannot win cups. Kaká coming back is good because he has good experience of the Champions League and these sort of matches.
[Gonzalo] Higuaín is a goalscorer and we need him. Let's see the reaction of Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcelo, but at the moment it looks like they are fine.
I have complete sympathy for Redknapp. I have experience of playing with ten men in the Champions League. If you have an advantage you defend but when you are losing it is an impossible job. They will try everything in the second leg and will give everything at White Hart Lane. They will fight, that is for sure.
Harry Redknapp, Tottenham manager It was a difficult night full stop. We lost Aaron Lennon as the team walked on, he was not well enough to play, then we go down to ten men. You need a miracle to play here with ten men. It was an uphill and impossible task. In the first half we played fantastically with ten men but we ran out of legs. Then Gareth Bale cramped up and we lost
[Vedran] ?orluka, so we ended up with people struggling; it was one of those nights.
We've come back with ten before but for that long here it was impossible. Lennon had not been feeling great all day and he had the look that he was not fit to play. He did not feel he had the strength and energy to run. He felt rough, had a warm-up and then did not feel well. There was nothing we could do. He did not look happy and said he might not last five minutes so it was not worth risking.
It could not be much more difficult than to be 4-0 down to Madrid. It's not over until it's over but we've got a mountain to climb. It's been a great experience so far and there is still a game to come. (Source: Uefa)