Karanka praises Real reserves after Barca win

Assistant coach Aitor Karanka was delighted with the performances of

Real Madrid's fringe players after their 2-1 win over Barcelona at the

Santiago Bernabeu.

First-team coach Jose Mourinho made seven

changes from the side that beat the Catalans 3-1 on Tuesday at the Camp

Nou in the Copa del Rey.

But Madrid overcame an almost

full-strength Barcelona side thanks to goals from Karim Benzema and

Sergio Ramos in-between Lionel Messi's leveller for the visitors.

Speaking

at the post-match press conference, Karanka said: "You need all your

players to deliver in a big game like this, including the ones who play

less often.

"Of all the performances of the team, I was

particularly impressed with those players. The team have shown that,

whoever is playing, they deserve to be trusted."

However, Karanka

warned his players against being complacent after the consecutive

victories over their biggest rivals, ahead of Tuesday's Champions League

last-16 second leg encounter at Manchester United.

"We have to

be happy with the result but if we think we have done something

extraordinary we could end up regretting it on Tuesday," he said.

"There's

no champagne here to celebrate anything, all we'll be doing is working

hard while remaining excited about the rest of the season We have to

keep going in the same direction."

Karanka explained that Madrid

dealt with the pressure of having the three decisive games - the two

with Barcelona and one at Manchester United - in such a short space of

time by just focusing on their day-to-day work.

"We work hard

every day and these games make us work even harder," he added. "Everyone

was saying that the season could be over this week but we haven't let

us affect us.

"We just work to make sure the team is as good as possible."

Source: Fox Sport