The Blaugranes face leaders Atletico Madrid next weekend with a chance to overturn their two-point deficit in the table
Gerard Pique has said Barcelona must beat Atletico Madrid next weekend in order to win La Liga after managing a 3-2 win over Valencia on Sunday to keep their title hopes afloat.
With Real Madrid and Sevilla also in contention, Pique claimed “there’s no other option” to silverware besides toppling Diego Simeone’s outfit – a challenging task for a Barcelona group that hasn’t kept a clean sheet in the league for a month.
Barcelona are in third place through 34 matches and are two points behind Atletico Madrid and level on points with Real Madrid. Sevilla sits four points back of the Blaugranes but have played one fewer game.
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What has been said?
“We have won a game after the unexpected defeat [vs Granada] to continue fighting until the end,” Pique told Movistar . “We are still there in the fight. We are there, that was the goal.
“We would like to be able to close the games earlier, they are dynamics and things that could happen. You have to analyze goal by goal, they shoot us less, but the problem is that all those shoots go inside. Thursday’s defeat did a lot of damage, but winning against Villarreal and Valencia gives us confidence.
“We prepare us for the Atlético Madrid game with the only idea of winning. It’s in our hands. We have to win, there’s no other option.”
Self-inflicted wound
Barcelona’s mid-week 2-1 defeat to Granada marked the first time they had lost at home to the Nazaries in their history, and it put control of the title race back into the hands of Atletico Madrid.
They kept up the pace by beating Valencia on Sunday, but they remain under the pressure of needing perfection the rest of the way to move past their top rivals.
Further reading
- Koeman: Ban would have been 20 games if I’d said something
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