Galatasaray coach Fatih Terim was thrilled with his team after their 3-2 win at Schalke saw them move into the Champions League quarter-finals.
The Turkish champions were held to a 1-1 draw in the first leg but secured a famous victory when Umut Bulut's stoppage-time winner put the tie beyond doubt.
After falling behind to an early Roman Neustadter strike, Gala responded with two first-half goals from Hamit Altintop and Burak Yilmaz.
Michel Bastos levelled for Schalke just after the hour mark, and Gala looked like they would go through on the away-goals rule until Bulut made sure of victory.
"I kiss all my players on the forehead. We should have scored even more during the first half, they were extraordinary," Terim told NTVSpor.
"That's an important victory for the country, we are in the last eight in Europe."
"Sometimes you play good, sometimes bad. Galatasaray did it by our own effort.
"I wanted all the players to do marking and they've proved it, this was the difference."
Schalke midfielder Julian Draxler, meanwhile, blamed the defeat on being asleep in the first half.
"Of course, it's very hard to take. We slept in the first half completely. There is no explanation for it because we were full of confidence,” the 19-year-old playmaker told Sky.
"But for the second half you have to praise the team. We tried everything and we were unlucky at the end."
Draxler's view was shared by his coach Jens Keller, who also expressed his disappointment in the performance of his side in the opening 45 minutes.
"I have no explanation (for the first half). We were not in the game and we showed no aggression" he said after the game.
"The concentration was not there and we did not manage to show what we wanted to do at all."
Schalke sporting director Horst Heldt was gutted by the defeat.
"I am obviously devastated by the result. If we look at the two games and the four halves then we didn't play well in one of them and that's where we conceded two goals," he said.
"It's a paradox we played badly in the first half and took the lead . Then we started playing a lot better but we didn't manage to score. Maybe we were a little tired, I don't know.
"At the end one has to say that we are all very disappointed because it could have turned out differently and in the Champions League you need to be able to perform at your best for the entire game and we got punished for not being good in one half ."
