Casemiro Backs Real Madrid Superstar Duo to Help Turn Club's League Form Around

Casemiro has backed Cristiano Ronaldo to make up for lost time and help fire Real Madrid back into title contention so early into the new season.

The Portuguese megastar returned to first-team action after a five-match ban for pushing a referee in August, and marked his return with a brace in Real's 3-0 Champions League win over Apoel Nicosia on Wednesday.

Speaking about the striker in quotes published by FourFourTwo, Casemiro stated the 32-year-old was looking back to his best as he lauded the superstar's impact on Zinedine Zidane's squad.

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He said: "Speaking of Cristiano is very easy, we know that he's the best in the world. We're happy having him back and he looks strong. With his ability we always want to have him available."

The Brazilian also backed Wales star Gareth Bale to win the club's fanbase back over after a less than impressive start to the new campaign.

The forward has been jeered by sections of Los Blancos' supporter base in recent games as he struggles to find his best form for the European giants, and even saw his name linked with a move back to the UK with Manchester United in the summer window.

Casemiro, though, expects Bale to come good and stated his belief that the ex-Tottenham ace wants to "fight" for Zidane's team.

He continued: "You can see that Bale is working, he wants to score goals and he's fighting to always help Real Madrid."

The defensive midfielder went on to add that Real were not panicking over their Spanish top flight title defence despite falling four points behind arch rivals Barcelona in the standings.

Two successive league draws have seen the reigning champions already playing catch up with the Catalan heavyweights, but Casemiro said it's still too early to rule out a second successive La Liga triumph.

He added: "There is no worry in the dressing room. We have drawn two games and people start talking, but we are calm and we are working just the same.

"This is football. There are days when you draw, there are days when things don't go well.

"But we have achieved three important points for us [against APOEL], especially to gain confidence ahead of a difficult match we have against Real Sociedad on Sunday."