Manuel Pellegrini hailed Real Madrid's last-gasp victory over
Sevilla as "psychologically important" in the Primera Liga title
race.
With leaders Barcelona being held 2-2 at Almeria earlier on
Saturday evening, Madrid had the chance to take over at the top of
the table if they could make it 13 wins out of 13 at their Bernabeu
home this season by beating Sevilla.
However, the big-spending capital club looked to have wasted
the opportunity as two defensive errors at the start of each half
allowed Sevilla to build a 2-0 lead with only 30 minutes to go.
Madrid staged a stunning recovery though, drawing level
through goals by Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos, and then
hitting the woodwork three times and creating a host of other
chances before substitute Rafael van der Vaart stabbed in the
winner two minutes into injury-time.
That victory lifted Madrid above Barcelona and gave them a
huge confidence boost ahead of Wednesday's Champions League last-16
second leg against Lyon, where the Spanish giants need to overturn
a 1-0 deficit if they are to progress through to the
quarter-finals.
Pellegrini admitted his side started slowly but claimed they
fully deserved the three points in the end.
"We were asleep for the first 15 minutes. Maybe we were
thinking of Barcelona's draw in Almeria, of being leaders, of the
Champions League game...nobody wanted to play in this manner," he
said.
"But after Sevilla's goal we reacted and from then on we
played great football, created many opportunities and managed to
miss four or five clear goalscoring chances.
"They (Sevilla) barely had any chances and their two goals
were quite strange and absurd.
"The scoreline did not reflect the difference there was
between the two teams.
"We'd missed a lot of opportunities to score the third goal
and psychologically it (the winner) was very important because it
arrived in the last minute."
Pellegrini warned against getting too carried away with what
was Madrid's seventh successive league win, though.
He added: "It's important to be leaders, but the most
important thing is not to depend on anybody, only on yourself.
We've taken an important step forward but it's not decisive.
"From here until the end of the season whoever makes the
least mistakes will win the league. The season hasn't finished,
there are 39 points still available and Barcelona will continue
fighting."
