Real Madrid captain Raul was thrilled with their performance in last night's amazing 5-1 defeat of Valencia at the Mestalla.

Raul struck Real's opener and said afterwards: "It was very important to score so early in the game. I think it was decisive because Valencia are experiencing a difficult time and that goal rocked them back.

"We haven't played like that for a long time. We created many chances and though we went into halftime 4-0 up, it could have been more. Our first-half was very good, spectacular.

"We played within ourselves in the second-half, but when they scored we managed to hit back straight away thanks to Robinho.

"We can now look forward to playing Sevilla with a lot of confidence."