Real Madrid coach Vicente del Bosque recognised his side still have a lot of hard work to do to make the Champions League quarter-finals even after claiming a first Group C win against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.
Del Bosque was relieved to see his side fight back after conceding the opening goal to the Germans on 30 minutes, Raul and Ronaldo scoring either side of half-time to clinch victory.
The result sees Real move up from bottom of the standings to second with four points from three games. They are still five points behind AC Milan, though, and just a point clear of Dortmund and Del Bosque is taking nothing for granted.
"There are three games left in the group phase and no one knows what the competition still holds," Del Bosque said.
"Our recent experience of winning three European Cups tells us that every game is going to be difficult. We can't afford to take anything for granted at this stage."
Real started the game brightly but Jan Koller's opening goal left them facing another damaging defeat and Del Bosque was pleased to see the way his players responded.
"It was very important that we managed to turn the game around after the opening goal and get the three points," the coach noted.
"It took a big physical effort. We defended well and I felt that in the end we had enough opportunities to win more easily.
"It was a real blow when they scored because we were playing well at the time but we managed to settle ourselves and play some good football after that."
Dortmund coach Matthias Sammer said the result was hardly a surprise but he was disappointed at letting Real off the hook.
"I'm pretty unhappy about the result because I think we could have done a lot more here," Sammer said.
"We tried to take an aggressive approach but it didn't always work. In the end it was hardly surprising that the home side ended up winning.
"It was a very important game for us and we'll have learned from the experience but it was a shame we ended up missing out on the three points after failing to take our chances. Normally you don't get that many against Real Madrid."
