But Luis Enrique’s team have taken just one point from their last four La Liga games and now lead the table on just head-to-head record over Atletico, with Real Madrid one point behind in third spot.
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They have just won once in their last six games – the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final – and have lost their last three games in the league to Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and, on Sunday, at home to struggling Valencia. “There is nothing more important for Barca fans than turning around this situation and we know the difficulty of the challenge, so I’m not interested in anything else”. “I congratulate my players for how they faced the adversity during the game”, said Enrique.
Luis Enrique’s side began April with a nine-point lead over second-placed Atletico, but their season has crumbled since then, with defeat against Real Madrid in El Clasico marking the start of a awful run.
The Blaugrana also suffered European disappointment last week, as they crashed out of the Champions League to Atletico.
Arda joined Barcelona from Atletico during the close season but had his debut delayed due to the Liga champions’ player registration ban.
“We know it will be hard to win in Depor, but we must play the same as we played today”, he said.
“We do have the best players, but now we have to change a negative dynamic into a positive dynamic”. They were victims of poor finishing along with a lack of composure in the final third.
“We were playing all the football, creating all the chances but didn’t manage to turn the result around”. The later part of the second half became an ill-tempered affair with Brazilian superstar Neymar and Argentine Javier Mascherano losing their cool. We will continue. We just lost two over whole [the] season, now have lost three in a row.
However, Enrique was elusive on whether he would consider stepping down at the end of the campaign if Barca’s incredible collapse costs them the title.
“I have always said that we must first move ahead of Atletico”. “We only have one option in our next games, which is to win, win and win”.
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“This is the least that we could give back to the supporters”, said Ayestaran, after notching a famous win over a side who recently boasted a 39-game unbeaten run.
