Real Madrid keeper Iker Casillas apologised Thursday for his side's elimination from the Champions League at the last-16 stage for the sixth consecutive season and said the players are to blame.

"I want to apologise to the fans, but I also want them to know we will never give up. We are excited about winning the league for us and for them," he told a news conference one day after French side Lyon dumped the big-spenders out of the tournament 2-1 on aggregate.

The loss has led to renewed calls from fans for Real coach Manuel Pellegrini, who joined the club from Villarreal in June 2009, to be fired but Casillas said the Chilean manager had the support "of all the players."

"It's easy to make him the target, but we are the ones to blame," he said.

"We have to move on. The team seems sad to me. The easy thing to do would be to give up. We are all disappointed, team, club and fans alike, but we want to get over this by winning the league title.

"When you've won more league titles than Champions Leagues you miss what you don't have. It's like having a girlfriend; you want to be free when you have one, but once you are, you want to have a girlfriend again."

The nine-time European champions have not won Europe's most-coveted trophy since 2002 when they beat Germany's Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in Glasgow.

They will face Valladolid in the Spanish league on Sunday.

AFP

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