Athletic Bilbao boss Marcelo Bielsa admitted his side lived dangerously in their impressive Europa League win away to Schalke.
The Spaniards took a huge step towards a place in the last four by winning 4-2 in their quarter-final first leg in Germany on Thursday night.
They had to come from 2-1 down to do so, though, and could have been further behind before mounting their late fightback had the hosts made the most of their numerous chances.
And Bielsa acknowledged the match could have gone either way.
"Over the 90 minutes it was a hard-fought game which was even in parts and even threatened to go against us and in Schalke's favour," he said on Schalke's official website.
"But we managed to survive unscathed the many attacks and dangerous situations Schalke had in our area and prevailed in the last 30 minutes.
"We were very aware of Schalke's attacking quality and know how difficult it is to neutralise the opposition attack.
"When Schalke go forward, they are scary.
"Therefore it was only logical that the hosts had many opportunities.
"Moreover, in the first half we did not push hard enough for goalscoring opportunities. That was different in the second half."
