Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho insists the Spanish La Liga title race is still on as his side re-discovers its best form fresh from Sunday’s 5-0 hammering of Real Mallorca.
The capital club belted Mallorca on the road, with Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo both scoring doubles, before Jose Callejon’s late fifth.
The result means Real remain eight points behind rivals Barcelona and improves their recent record to seven wins, one draw and one loss in their past nine matches in all competitions since losing to Sevilla in La Liga.
“I think we’re doing really well even though we lost in the last Champions League match,” Mourinho said.
“Since the match in Sevilla we have been winning matches, but although we are still not playing as great as we did for virtually the whole of last season, it was enough to win comfortably.
“We scored the first chance to score and it made the match easier. Sometimes we need lots of chances to score and this time we scored the first, and the second the same and things got easier.”
As for the title race, Mourinho insisted it was still well and truly on despite his side’s slow start to the campaign.
“Last season we had a 10-point advantage over the second placed team in March, and we felt that the league was still up for grabs,” he said.
“Now it is not March, it is October and not 10 points difference, we have eight points to make up.”