Iker Casillas notches up 862 minutes without being beaten

 

Casillas is having a stellar season. Ancelotti has put his faith in the Madrid skipper for the Champions League and Copa del Rey games and to date his 862 minutes (77 days) without conceding a goal is a club record. Likewise, en route to the final he has kept a clean sheet in the eight games Madrid have played, an unprecedented feat in 111 years of the Copa del Rey, or since it has been played over at least three or more rounds.
This season he has played 14 games, six in the Champions League (against Galatasaray he only featured for 15 minutes) and eight in the Copa del Rey: a total of 1,185 minutes. He has kept a clean sheet in eleven games and has only conceded four goals, which means he is currently being beaten every 296 minutes; Llorente, twice, Vidal (both Juventus players) and Umut Bulut were the goalscorers. The Galatasaray game was the last time he conceded, on 27 November. Diego López, meanwhile, has played 2,145 minutes and conceded 25 goals, that’s one every 85.8 minutes.
Casillas currently stands alone with the club’s record for clean sheets, beating it on 27 January against Espanyol, and leaves both Buyo’s (204 minutes) and Araquistáin’s (249 minutes) records behind. The former had held the record since the 1994-1995 season, when Madrid were crowned league champions with 55 points (with the two points for a win system), but was pleased it was Iker that had overtaken him: “Who better than him...”.
Casillas’ next game will be on 26 February against Schalke 04 in the last sixteen of the Champions League. If Ancelotti continues to rotate in the Madrid goal, Casillas could still feature in up to seven European ties, that is if Madrid are able to reach the final on 25 May in Lisbon, and one in the Copa del Rey, with the final to be played on 19 April at the Mestalla.