Mourinho hails Benzema, squad system

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho hailed Karim Benzema's "out-of-this-world" goal after his side maintained their La Liga title challenge by hammering Osasuna 5-1 in Pamplona last night. The France forward opened the scoring in spectacular fashion in the seventh minute and Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain both scored twice as Mourinho's side ran out comfortable winners. Francisco Nino got on the scoresheet for the home side, but they never truly threatened to cause an upset against the leaders. "You never know what the score will be like," Mourinho told the club's website. "Benzema netted a goal that is out of this world in the first chance we got and Cristiano scored from a fantastic shot in our second chance. "We did two things very well - we adapted to Osasuna's style and we didn't lose our identity in attack. We did well overall and we reacted after Osasuna gained some strength with their goal." The win saw Real provisionally open up a nine-point advantage at the summit, only for Barcelona to cut it back to six by beating Athletic Bilbao 2-0 at the Camp Nou later in the evening. "I like to see that all my men respond," Mourinho added. "It wasn't an easy game and both [Esteban] Granero and [Raul] Albiol, who hadn't played for 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 [Nuri] Sahin's in Cyprus [Tuesday's 3-0 win at APOEL Nicosia in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final]. It always makes us very happy to see men who don't usually play doing this well. "[Sami] Khedira is different and brings different qualities to the team. I chose Nuri in Cyprus and [against Osasuna] I chose Granero. "I try to use the best possible combinations regarding each player and match. I knew what to expect and decided to use Granero. It proved right and I am especially happy for Granero and Albiol. They gave a fantastic performance."