REAL MADRID MOVED three points clear of Barcelona at the top of La Liga as Casemiro’s double earned a hard-fought 2-1 win over Sevilla at Santiago Bernabeu.
Fresh from their penalty shootout victory over Atletico Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana, injury-hit Madrid were largely underwhelming until a moment of quality from Casemiro broke the deadlock shortly before the hour on Saturday.
Indeed, Sevilla thought they had taken the lead through Luuk de Jong’s header midway through the first half, but Julen Lopetegui’s luck was out against his former club as VAR came to Los Blancos’ rescue.
De Jong did have his goal when he curled in a superb strike from the edge of the area after 64 minutes, only for Casemiro to double his tally five minutes later as Madrid claimed the points.
After a promising run from Rodrygo Goes came to nothing, Toni Kroos had the first sighter of the match, curling a first-time effort tamely into the arms of Tomas Vaclik.
Madrid swiftly took control, but lacked cutting edge up top and relied on VAR to keep them on level terms with 30 minutes played when De Jong’s header was disallowed for Nemanja Gudelj blocking off Eder Militao, much to Lopetegui’s chagrin.