Machin: Sevilla came up against the best Real Madrid of late LaLiga Santander - Sevilla Was impressed by Los Blancos

Real Madrid earned a 2-0 victory over Sevilla on Saturday afternoon, with Pablo Machin admitting his side had come up against the best Los Blancos performance since the winter break.

Goals from Casemiro and Luka Modric secured the victory and Machin was full of praise for the capital city side afterwards.

"We must recognise that we've come up against the best Real Madrid side that there has been in recent matches," he said in his post-match press conference.

"I'm disappointed because we competed well in the first half.

"We wore ourselves out with that effort, to get a point from this stadium your goalkeeper has to be outstanding and you have to be clinical and we didn't have that."

The physical toll of such a long season is beginning to take its toll on the Andalusian club, with Pablo Sarabia and Ever Banega feeling the impact more than others, although Machin believes his charges deserve great credit.

"They are both players who have played many matches at a really high level," he intimated.

"That's why Sevilla have been league leaders for at least three matchdays.

"You have to remember that we were level with Real Madrid after the first round of matches."

For the remainder of the season, the former Girona coach may have to prioritise certain competitions with the club still competing in the Europa League and Copa del Rey.

With the expectation that he will guide Los Rojiblancos back to the Champions League, Machin does face the tricky task of balancing his rotation policy.

"We want to win all our matches, others will say we have to prioritise one competition over another, but our intention is to compete in the best way," he confirmed.

"We want to win the tie against Barcelona, even though they are the favourite to win everything.

"If we get eliminated, then we can think of subtracting some matches from our schedule, but our only thought right now is to compete to the best of our ability for everything."

That cup clash with Barcelona will take place on Wednesday evening.