Real Madrid coach Mariano Garcia Remon paid tribute to Michael Owen after he gave his team a 1-0 win over Dynamo Kiev, but made it clear that the England striker was still not guaranteed a place in the starting line-up.
"I was very happy with Michael's performance," Garcia Remon said at a post-match news conference. "What I wanted was mobility up front and he responded very well indeed. He's improving all the time and has a great attitude.
"Of course we want everyone to play but sometimes even great players have to stay on the bench. Overall, though, I was delighted with his performance."
Owen notched his first goal for his new club when he slid in front of two defenders to turn a low cross from Ronaldo in from close range 10 minutes before the break for the only goal of an evenly-balanced game at the Bernabeu.
Real, who were dealt a heavy 3-0 defeat in their opening game to Bayer Leverkusen but produced a memorable 4-2 comeback victory over AS Roma in their second, made a bright start as they laid siege to the Kiev goal in the opening minutes.
But even after Owen put them ahead they were never able to relax against the quick-breaking Dynamo forwards and had keeper Iker Casillas to thank for stopping the visitors from leveling the game.
OFFENSIVE LINE-UP
"I didn't think it was a risky policy to start with such an offensive line-up," said Garcia Remon who also fielded Ronaldo and Raul in the starting line-up.
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"I think it was a deserved victory, but there could have been more goals for both sides given the number of chances both teams had during the game. We should have put the result beyond doubt before they put us under so much pressure at the end."
Dynamo coach Josef Sabo bemoaned the fact that his team, who had won their previous two group games, failed to take advantage of a string of clear scoring opportunities to put Real under more pressure.
"It wasn't our day," he said. "We had the chances but didn't take them so we will have to wait for the return match to see if our luck changes.
"In my opinion we should have won this game. We had plenty of chances to score but we just weren't able to finish off. There was also a clear penalty, which the referee didn't blow for in the first half, but in general the team played well.
"Playing Real Madrid here is very difficult, but their players are all human and when we play them in Kiev we will be going all out for the win."
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