Wenger salutes 'growing' Arsenal

Arsenal FC manager Arsène Wenger praised his young defenders for setting up a remarkable 1-0 victory over Real Madrid CF in the first leg of their Round of 16 match at the Santiago Bernabéu. Thierry Henry struck what proved to be the winner just after the break, and the victory, the first by an English side over Madrid in Spain, gives Arsenal a crucial advantage for the second leg at Highbury in two weeks' time.

Juan Ramón López Caro, Real Madrid coach
It wasn't our best performance, but this is a 180 minute-match. Arsenal were exceptional and very strong in the first 45 minutes. The next match is going to be completely different and we must be ready to play a great game in London. We got in good positions, with [David] Beckham and Ronaldo, but we weren't precise. It was a tactical decision [to bring on Raúl González] because we needed more strikers to play an offensive game.

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal manager
I think this young team is growing. We were defending well when we needed to and it was much better than I expected. We were not the favourites and we had chances to score more goals. The young players played extremely well. One of the keys to the game was to start well. We played with respect, but Real will be at their best at Highbury and we have to try to score more goals there.

Thierry Henry, Arsenal striker
We were brilliant defensively, but more importantly, we were not scared to play. We have only won one game. We are not there yet, so we have to stay calm and focused. We actually wasted some chances in the first half. In some games recently we have been kicking the ball up front for no reason, but here we played football. We were tremendous at the back - amazing.