Diego Milito scored to give Inter Milan a 1-0 win at home against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Milito struck in the 65th minute after linking up with midfielder Wesley Sneijder, but Inter missed chances to score either side of the goal while dominating the game.
Moscow goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev kept his side in the match with crucial saves and while his opposite Julio Cesar had little to do he had to react quickly to deny Moscow striker Tomas Necid late on.
"I think in the second half we moved the ball quicker and looked for space," Inter coach Jose Mourinho said. "If you had said to me before the game that we would win 1-0 I would have been delighted, but to be honest now I'm not. With that performance we should have scored far more goals."
The second leg will be on April 6 in Moscow on the synthetic pitch at Luzhniki Stadium.
"We don't have any time to train on a synthetic surface," Mourinho said. "If we had 15 days (between the matches) we could, but we have a game on Saturday and then have to travel for the match on Tuesday. The only players that will get the chance are the goalkeepers."
Inter took control early, but was wayward with its finishing. Samuel Eto'o and Sneijder both put efforts wide from close range.
Inter striker Goran Pandev came closest to opening the scoring in the first half when he shot narrowly over the bar from long range.
"What happened in the first half was what I was expecting," Mourinho said. "CSKA was an organized opponent and a closed opponent."
Cesar came to Inter's rescue 10 minutes into the second half. Evgeny Aldonin hit a curling, long-range shot and the 'keeper had to react quickly to push the ball over the bar.
Five minutes later, Dejan Stankovic squandered a great opportunity. Esteban Cambiasso poked to ball to Stankovic, but he was unable to control it and prodded the ball into Akinfeev's grasp.
Pandev and Eto'o were then denied a goal by desperate saves from Akinfeev, before Milito ended the deadlock. Milito controlled Sneijder's pass on the edge of the area, turned quickly, and shot into the corner of the goal.
Pandev should have doubled the lead in the 71st. He rounded Akinfeev, but Aleksei Berezutski cleared his shot off the line.
Six minutes from time, Sneijder missed another opening. Eto'o played him into the area, but despite having time to get his shot on target, the midfielder dragged his effort wide.
Both teams wore black armbands in tribute to the victims of two sets of bomb attacks that rocked Russia this week.
On Monday, 39 people were killed following two attacks on the Moscow subway system. Then on Wednesday 12 were killed by two suicide bombers in Dagestan in southern Russia.
