Even though the fans seem to believe Real Madrid's season is over, the team still needs to get six points out of twelve in order to ensure the Liga title. Mourinho's team will try to start this mission well by beating Michel's Sevilla at the Santiago Bernabéu tomorrow at 12:00 CET.
The players will need to recover soon from the Wednesday's disappointing outcome. La Liga is now the only title remaining and the fans should not celebrate it although the seven-point margin seems definite. Sevilla will surely represent a tough challenge. They've had the time to prepare for this game and Real Madrid players must feel tired after playing 120 minutes (and lose) three days ago. Given all these circumstances, Mourinho might want to introduce some fresh legs like Granero, Callejón, Coentrao, Higuaín or Kaka'.
But the Portuguese coach will need to find the right balance so the team still is able to dominate and create tons of scoring opportunities. This is the most important game on the remaining schedule, but Madrid will also travel to Bilbao to play against Athletic next Wednesday.
Mourinho and his players have already showed their ability to come back from painful losses. After Barelona's win at the Santiago Bernabéu December past the team beat Sevilla at the Sánchez Pizjuán by a great 2-6 and a truly astonishing performance by Cristiano Ronaldo and Di María.
Whether Guardiola and his Barcelona players will give all they got to win the remaining Liga games or not still remains to be seen. It's hard to believe they have a chance at the title, but if Madrid isn't capable of winning this game and Barcelona beats Rayo, Mourinho's side will then have a lot of pressure against Athletic Bilbao.
Real Madrid's magic number is six points. That means that the team could earn the 32nd Liga title even tomorrow if they're able to beat Sevilla and Rayo wins their game in Vallecas against Barcelona. This chance doesn't seem very likely though, so Mourinho needs to focus his players on winning game by game. If he thinks some players aren't recovered from the loss against Bayern yet, it's better to give the bench the chance of starting.
Granero might replace Xabi Alonso or Khedira, with Higuaín getting his chance instead of Benzema as well. Callejón hasn't had many chances of starting this season, but when he has had the chance of coming off the bench, he has impacted the game really well, like when he scored the game-winning goal in Mallorca. Kaka' was terrible against Bayern, but Mourinho might want to give Özil some rest as well. Di María shouldn't be tired as he came back from his injury some weeks ago.
Sahin, Varane, Altintop and Carvalho are out of the list, so the only possible change remaining might see Coentrao instead of Marcelo. Sevilla's Jesús Navas is a big threat, and the Portuguese defender might be well suited to stop the Spanish winger.
When the game ends, Real Madrid's season will be three games away from being over. Mourinho will want his players to conclude the season in winning form and with La Liga's title in the pocket.
