Champions Barca have lost their last three Liga games, their worst run since October 2003, allowing Atletico to draw level with them on 76 points with Real lurking just one point further back.
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The visitors were ahead in the 26th-minute after an Ivan Rakitic own goal, before Santi Mina doubled their advantage at the stroke of half-time with his fourth league goal of the season. “I wasn’t surprised by Barca’s elimination as they were eliminated by a very strong team”.
Barcelona returned from the break firing from all cylinders with Valencia repelling all efforts of the Catalans. “We face a great challenge, but we will be champions if we win our remaining five matches”.
Barcelona have lost with a 1 goal margin in their last 3 matches (La Liga).
Real Madrid had moved closer on Saturday with an easy 5-1 win at last-place Getafe, getting to within one point of Barcelona, which is trying to snap a three-game winless streak in the league. Real Madrid are also only one point behind in what is now a wide-open title race.
Thanks to an improbable collapse by a Barcelona team that looked unstoppable only a month ago, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid are back in contention for the title. Yet, an inspired goalkeeping display from Diego Alves, who produced a spectacular save to deny Rakitic late on, and a shocking miss two minutes from time by Pique at the near post consigned the hosts to defeat.
Second-placed Atletico have bridged a nine-point gap and are only behind Luis Enrique’s side due to their inferior head-to-head record as they prepare to visit Athletic Bilbao.
All of Torres’s goals in his last four outings have come from Koke assists and that combination worked a treat once more for Diego Simeone’s men when the former Liverpool and Chelsea striker latched onto an inch-perfect pass before lifting the ball over the onrushing Andres Fernandez.
“Feeling sorry for ourselves won’t get us anywhere”.
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“Just imagine if we’d given up? We are sorry for this loss but we have to stay together in order to win [La Liga]”, the Croatian told Marca. We are in contention in the league and in the Champions League, but we haven’t won anything. “Our desire has been spectacular but we now need to get together and win all the matches remaining”.
