Casillas: Mourinho showed class with Vilanova support

Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas has praised Jose Mourinho’s empathy towards Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova.

Vilanova underwent an operation on Tuesday to remove a tumour found on his parotid gland. Mourinho – who infamously poked Vilanova in the eye in his side’s 3-2 defeat in Supercopa final at Camp Nou in August – wished the Spaniard well in his press conference following Real’s 6-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.Casillas is not surprised with Mourinho’s cultured approach – in stark contrast with the uncouth ways he showed during the brawl in August.”Mourinho’s gesture is 10 out of 10 and hats off to him,” Casillas told Marca.”I think sometimes people always like debate and have an opinion on certain things, but when I saw Mourinho’s gesture I thought it was top-notch.””It was really nice of him to wish Vilanova well and we all feel the same way. But, I think there will be some people who don’t like it when Mourinho says these kind of things.””In any case, hats off to Mourinho. He is someone I know very well and he says things because he feels that way.”La Liga action resumes for Mourinho’s Real on Saturday, when they play city rivals Atletico Madrid.”It’s a derby where everyone is watching and I am sure Atletico will want to play a good game,” he said.”I don’t think we are favourites, but we all know that we are doing really well of late. Our aim is to take things one game at a time.”Real lead the La Liga table, three points ahead of Barcelona.