Casillas Receives Crowd Ovation after Three Saves - The return of Saint Iker

Posted Friday, October 04, 2013 by Marca.com

The Champions League returned to the Santiago Bernabéu on Wednesday night and with it came the return of Iker Casillas in his first official match in the stadium since the 15th January.

Casillas enjoyed a relatively quiet evening, the one shock came just before half-time when both he and his defence misjudged the flight of a corner and Sigurdsson hit the bar, just as it seemed as if the ball would cross the line Luka Modric appeared to clear away any danger.

The second half was equally as quiet until added on time when Iker was called to make three mighty saves within a minute that managed to bring the 40,000 crowd that stayed on to its feet.

Iker's final minute of madness began with a stop in a one on one with Bolaños and from the resulting corner he had to be alert to deny Bengtsson with a one handed save that gave the Danish side a second consecutive corner kick.

It was at that moment when the crowd began with the classic chant of "Iker, Iker", just before he had to make another stop from the following set piece at close range. The three saves meant that Real Madrid managed its first clean sheet in quite a while. Whether it was a coincidence or not, the return of Iker coincided with his side not conceding a goal for the first time in 11 matches at the Bernabeu.