Mourinho salutes Inter display

Published Mar. 31, 2010 11:09 p.m. ET

foxsports

Jose Mourinho felt Inter Milan deserved to have come away from the San Siro with a bigger lead from their Champions League clash with CSKA Moscow.

The quarter-final tie remains in the balance going into next week's return leg in Russia after Diego Milito scored the only goal of the game.

The deadlock did not look like being broken in a tight first half but Inter raised the tempo after the interval and Mourinho was delighted with the performance.

Only a string of fine saves from Igor Akinfeev kept the Italians down to just one but Mourinho was not too concerned about only having a narrow lead.

The Portuguese is confident Inter can score at the Luzhniki Stadium and make it through to the last four.

"It is difficult against this team and when I said it would be an ugly game, I knew what I was talking about," he said.

"CSKA kept clammed up and blocked off all the spaces, so it was very tough to get anything done.

"In the second half the spaces opened up a bit and we created so many chances that ending 3-0 would have been frankly the least we would expect from such a performance.

"Nonetheless, it's a win and we got the result, so with a goal in the second leg we can be pretty much secure of qualification."