Real Madrid on the verge of Spanish league title

Iker Casillas praised his Real Madrid side for putting last week’s crushing Champions League exit behind them after they all but sealed the title against Sevilla.

The Bernabeu boys crashed out of Europe on penalties at the semi-final stage last Wednesday, but showed no hangover from that defeat by comfortably dispatching the Andalusians at home.

The victory, courtesy of Cristiano Ronald’s 57th goal of the season and a Karim Benzema double, means Real are only one win away from a first La Liga crown in four years.

And stalwart stopper Casillas, with more than 450 appearances for the club spanning 13 years, couldn’t have been more proud of his team-mate - especially following the Bayern Munich heartache.

“It was important to win after the harsh blow of losing on Wednesday in a penalty shoot-out at our stadium,” the 30-year-old said. “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. 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.”

The team that Real have been kept in their shadow is of course Barcelona, who needed a point against Rayo Vallecano late last night to have any chance of a fourth successive league trophy.

It was the champions’ first game since boss Pep Guardiola announced he was quitting, and Casillas added: “It seems Guardiola was set on leaving Barcelona. It’s his decision and people at Barca will thank him for everything he has achieved.”