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Real Madrid continue their march to steal the la Liga crown after sealing a 4-0 win over Racing Santander last night. The win was courtesy of a Benzema brace, a goal from Cristiano, and another from Angel Di Maria, who will miss the upcoming Champions League clash with CSKA Moscow.
The convincing victory will put Real Madrid 13 points above second-place team Barcelona on the Spanish league table, with Barcelona set to play Valencia later this evening at the Camp Nou. It's going to be a tricky fixture for the Catalans, but even if they pull off a win, they still trail Real Madrid by 10 points (so, ha!).
After the match, Coach Jose Mourinho was upbeat, but as always, very objective when he gave his statement to the media:
"I like the final score, but what I most like is taking another three points and having one game less to play. We won without much brilliance, but without much effort either. It's important to have as many players as possible available to us now that we'll play a game every three days [...]We're a happy bunch and we are very motivated for the match, but we know playing in Moscow will be difficult."
The "Special One" also hinted that he planned to stick around at the club, playing down rumors about his departure to Chelsea or Inter Milan:
"I love my former sides Inter Milan and Chelsea, and their fans as well [...] I'm their past, and a very good one at that, so they remember me. I'm no longer there and they should fight together instead of thinking about those who aren't there anymore."
You can watch some of his interview here in English.
The players themselves were cautiously optimistic.
"We should play all games like this one. We'll start focusing on our Champions League match today. We know it will be cold in Moscow, but we will overcome that to try to win the game."
"There are many games left still and we could have unpleasant surprises any day, so we'll have to work hard to avoid that. We must concentrate hard and remain calm. We have to take things slowly. We're about to play a championship that's very important to us again this week. We all know what's at stake in the UCL and it will be essential to earn a good result on the road. We will adapt to the Moscow climate."
"During warm-up we all said we shouldn't concede any goals because it's always harder to make a comeback. I will have chances to score in the future. We must now win more games and take as many points as we can. Our objective is to win La Liga."
"We must keep a cool head because the league will continue to be complicated despite our lead. Any opponent can cause us problems. Each game should be like a final."
Follow Real Madrid this Tuesday at 18:00CET in Champions League Round of 16 first leg against CSKA Moscow on Managing Madrid's twitter and facebook page.