Diego Simeone was full of praise for his Atletico Madrid players after their 3-0 home win over Eibar in the Copa Del Rey quarterfinal first leg on Thursday.
The Vicente Calderon crowd was treated to a good performance with goals from Antoine Griezmann, Angel Correa and Kevin Gameiro giving Atletico a strong advantage going into next Wednesday's second leg.
Simeone, who has seen his side struggle with inconsistent form this season is thrilled that his attackers made a strong impact, especially midfielder Nicolas Gaitan.
"It was an important game, we backed the team to win duels one against one," Simeone told BeIN Sports.
"With the speed of Griezmann, Correa, [Yannick] Carrasco and Gaitan, which is fine, we could do damage. With some precision we were going to have chances and the match was good.
"[Gaitan] has been working well, he has had a major change since November in terms of his adaptation and what the team needs from him, if you add talent to work you approach the ideal situation,
"I'm happy with the victory, the team's response to a major game, and how they have been competing for five years," Simeone said.
"Today we only care what is done today and what we have to do on Sunday [against Athletic Bilbao in LaLiga].
"We look with the same... desire to compete and that will remain as long as I am in charge of the team."
Uruguayan centre-back Jose Maria Gimenez was equally pleased with the result but has urged his teammates to keep their focus and keep improving as a unit.
"In the first half Eibar defended well, but in the second half we managed to get two more goals that give us [some comfort], but that does not close the tie at all," he told Bein Sports.
"We are not going to relax a little bit, we know the difficulties of all the LaLiga teams... the advantage is quite favourable for us, but it [the outcome of the tie] is not closed."