Mourinho hails Real squad strength

With the season reaching its final stages, Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho admits he is buoyed by some excellent performances from his fringe players recently.

Right after Nuri Sahin put in a good display against APOEL Nicosia in the Champions League on Tuesday, Esteban Granero and Raul Albiol were both given a chance to impress in Saturday's match against Osasuna.

After Real cruised to a 5-1 victory, Mourinho admits he was impressed by both of them.

"I like to see that my men respond," the Portuguese coach said on the club's official website. "It wasn't an easy game and both Granero and Albiol, who hadn't played in a long time, responded very well.

"This shows the strength of the group and of each individual player. We're all very happy with their performance, just like we were with Sahin's in Cyprus [against APOEL].

"It always makes us very happy to see men who don't usually play doing this well. As their coach, I wish to thank them for their performances."

Mourinho was also in awe of strikes from Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, and believed his side did well to regain the momentum after Osasuna had pulled one back.

"You never know what  the score will be like," Mourinho added. "Benzema netted a goal that is out of this world [with] the first chance we got and Cristiano scored from a fantastic shot [with] our second chance.

"We did two things very well tonight: we adapted to Osasuna's style and we didn't lose our identity in attack.

"We did very well overall and we reacted after Osasuna gained some strength with their winner."

Real are next in action on Wednesday when they take on APOEL in the return leg of their Champions League quarter-final holding a 3-0 advantage, before entertaining Valencia in La Liga next Sunday.