Casillas happy after Sevilla victory

Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas has praised his team-mates after Sunday’s La Liga win over Sevilla.

Casillas was delighted by the way in which Real Madrid bounced back from their midweek Champions League exit at the hands of Bayern Munich.

And the 30-year-old, who was made more than 450 appearances for the club in a career spanning 13 years, said the win was a ‘solid step’ towards winning their first La Liga title in four years.

Jose Mourinho’s men were left heartbroken after seeing their hopes of a 10th European Cup ended by a penalty shoot-out defeat at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.

But they put that disappointment behind them by routing Sevilla 3-0 to move 10 points clear at the top of the table.

The win means that Real are now just one victory away from clinching the title, and could even be crowned champions if Barcelona lose at Rayo Vallecano later on Sunday.

“It was important to win today after the harsh blow of losing on Wednesday in a penalty shoot-out at our stadium,” Casillas told the club’s official website.

“We have to look ahead and focus on winning this league title, which we are all excited about and would be a beautiful thing. We’ve topped the table for most of the season.

“We had to defeat Sevilla and we did. We’ve taken a solid step in the championship and winning the title would be a reward to the hard work we’ve been doing for months, even years.

“This project has to start showing success but we’ll have to wait until we mathematically win. We just have to wait and see what happens tonight in the Rayo Vallecano-Barcelona fixture.

“If we win the league title, we will end a spell of harsh years in which Real Madrid played second fiddle when they should have been on top.”

Casillas also praised Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, who announced on Friday that he will be stepping down at the end of the season.

“It seems Guardiola was set on leaving Barcelona,” the Spain international said. “It’s his decision and people at Barca will thank him for everything he has achieved.”

Madrid’s victory over Sevilla came courtesy of Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, with the latter opening the scoring before the former added a quickfire double shortly after the interval.