Madrid: Real Madrid earned a therapeutic 2-0 victory Saturday at home to Sevilla with late strikes from Casemiro and Luka Modric as Santiago Solari’s stuttering side leapfrogged into third spot in La Liga.
Brazilian midfielder Casemiro unleashed a stinging shot from outside the area which was too powerful for outstretched keeper Tomas Vaclik, giving the European champions a deserved lead in the 78th minute after they dominated the second half.
Teenage forward Vinicius (Jr) was again Real Madrid’s most dangerous outlet and had come close to breaking the deadlock with a scooping shot that just crept wide of the post before Casemiro finally broke the deadlock.
Modric finally sealed the victory in added on time with a cool finish, giving Solari’s team a second straight win after their poor start to 2019, having drawn at Villarreal and lost at home to Real Sociedad.
Madrid now are on 36 points, three ahead of Sevilla who have failed to win in their last four league outings, while Barcelona, who host Leganes, Sunday, are top with 43.
“We needed a game like this. It was a magnificent performance, we dominated every phase of the match,” said Real captain Sergio Ramos. “We scored the chances we needed to, we could have scored more but we’re very happy.”
Solari again left out experienced left-back Marcelo, in favour of youngster Sergio Reguilon, and Spain midfielder Isco but was boosted by the return of Lucas Vazquez from suspension and Karim Benzema, who wore a bandage on a fractured finger. Benzema teed up Vinicius early in the game but the Brazilian fired straight at Vaclik under the Sevilla bar.
Sevilla had only one chance of note in the whole game, which left-back Sergio Escudero put just wide of the near post.
