Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak said his trio of miraculous saves in his team's 0-0 Champions League quarterfinal draw against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday happened so fast he was at a loss for words to describe them.
Atletico's 4-2 victory in the round-of-16 first leg at Leverkusen last month had put them in control of the tie, which they saw out in Wednesday's second leg.
And although there was never any real sense of a possible turnaround during the return game at the Estadio Vicente Calderon, Oblak made a string of superb saves including one unbelievable triple stop to deny Julian Brandt and Kevin Volland (twice), to ensure his team kept another clean sheet.
The Slovenia international tried to explain his sequence of saves on BeIn Sports after the final, while also taking about the importance of reaching the last eight again for the the 2014 and 2016 competition finalists.
"I don't know. It was going very quickly," Oblak said. "Sometimes you make three saves, and sometimes they score a goal with the first attempt. It is difficult to explain. I saw the ball and went for it. I reacted quickly and everything went well for me.
"To be a fourth consecutive year in the top eight in Europe is not easy," Oblak said. "It is something important for the club, and for ourselves. All the Atletico Madrid fans value that. The team will improve, as it has improved in these last years. I know we can do great things."
Two years ago at this stage of the competition, during his first season at the Calderon club, Oblak came off the bench during a second leg at home to Bayer and ended up making decisive saves as his team progressed on penalties. The former Benfica keeper said that he had happy memories of that night.
"Two years ago here I made my [home] debut [in the Champions League], due to bad luck for Miguel [Angel Moya] who was injured," he said. "I have good memories of this game and that moment two years ago. My life here changed a bit as I began to play more."
Oblak admitted that a much-changed Atletico team had not been at their best over the 90 minutes on Wednesday night, while saying that the focus was now immediately switched to Sunday's La Liga game at home to Sevilla.
"We fought to win the game today, although it did not turn out like that and the important thing is to be in the quarter-finals. Now we must think about our next game in La Liga."