The former Blancos centre-half admitted that Jose Mourinho's men were emotionally and physically drained after facing Barcelona and Bayern Munich in their two previous games
Aitor Karanka admitted that Real Madrid had not been at their best in Sunday's vital victory over Sevilla but heaped praise on the players for overcoming fatigue and Champions League heartbreak to move to within touching distance of the Liga title.
Los Blancos went into the game against the Rojiblancos still reeling after their penalty shoot-out failure against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night.
However, they still managed to see off Sevilla thanks to a double from Karim Benzema after Cristiano Ronaldo had opened the scoring in the Spanish capital.
"There are now fewer games left [three] and we had to win today after Wednesday's upset," Karanka told Madrid's official website. "I'll say it again: this team deserves to win the title.
"Regardless of winning the league title or not, these players have the character and mentality of champions.
"They were tired and sad today, and we could have played better, but we won. We did what we had to do."
Having pulled 10 points clear of second-placed Barcelona, Madrid now only need to win one of their three remaining games to secure the title, but they will be crowned champions should the Blaugrana lose at Ray Vallecano on Sunday night.
Karanka does not care how Los Blancos realise their dream but he admitted that he would have no problem having to finish the job themselves against Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday evening.
"It's obviously important to win the Spanish league for everything it entails and for how hard we've worked for it. The sooner we win, the better, really," he confessed.
"But it would be nice to win at a great venue like San Mames against Athletic Bilbao because they are having a great season.
"We're all only thinking about winning the game we need to celebrate as soon as possible.
"Our men are in fantastic form and we know how tired they are. The exhaustion they had after facing Barcelona and Bayern in such a short time is eclipsed by their confidence.
"They performed very well on Saturday and made a great effort on Wednesday, so today's clash was sort of like a reward."
Amidst all of the talk about Barcelona's lack of a 'Plan B' in recent days, Karanka stated that they too only know one way to play the game.
"We only have a Plan A here, and we'll stick to it until we take the points we need," he stated. "We also only had a Plan A last season under different circumstances, so it focused on scoring more goals and helping Cristiano increase his tally."
Madrid's clash with Athletic in Basque country gets under way at 22.00CET.
