Inter drew the second-leg at home last night 2-2, to reach the semis 4-3 on aggregate.
Calhanoglu said: "I expected this suffering for sure, against a very strong team like Bayern Munich. They have players with values. We are prepared like this: in the second half we came in well, we immediately made it 1-1 and then 2-1.
"Then we had to defend in the last 10 minutes, we did it and we are happy."
On bouncing back after Bayern took a 1-0 lead, he also said: “These are details that make the difference. We didn't give up, we immediately made it 2-1 then another ten minutes of high level and then we dropped back to defend our goal.
"On the pitch we control our time, because we have to play 90 minutes every 3 days and it's not easy. We did well. And our fans helped us a lot, we must always believe that we can hurt our opponents."
Calhanoglu played in a deeper role, adding: "We tried to get up, I went to (Josh) Kimmich. But behind me there was someone like Thomas Muller, someone who makes dangerous movements, so I stayed more in front of the defense and they had the ball more than we did in midfield."