Barcelona captain Carles Puyol has called on his teammates to use pride and professionalism as inspiration in the La Liga title fight.
The Spaniard stated that inferior pitch conditions and the extreme cold compounded Barcelona's poor first-half performance against Osasuna.
"We knew it would be very cold, but the most important problem was the pitch. It took us a long time to get into the game." he told fcbarcelona.com
"It was hard to keep your feet, and that's what hurt us most, and took us a long time to adapt to."
Despite losing to the home side in that fixture, Puyol believes no one at the club is giving up the La Liga battle just yet.
"Clearly we're not happy with the match at Osasuna, but the League is not lost yet." he said.
"We must be realistic and accept that it's complicated, but if this team has anything, it's that we will not give up, and we'll fight to the end."
He is aware that Los Cules are currently in an unfamiliar position, having become used to leading the league by a number of points in past seasons. However, the central defender insisted that the team's mentality remains unchanged.
"Before, we were in front and we were forced to keep winning win because they were close behind. Now we must try to win, to put pressure on them to do the same." he stated.
Puyol maintains that Barcelona's focus is on themselves, despite the knowledge that the team are now dependent on rivals Real Madrid to slip up in order to close up the points gap. The difference now stands at 10 points, after Real Madrid recorded a 4-2 win over Levante in their latest fixture.
Welcoming Valencia to the Camp Nou is next on the Catalans' agenda, in what could possibly be another tricky fixture for them.
Post a Comment