FC Barcelona’s inability to beat Recreativo de Huelva on Saturday in La Liga got back to them on Sunday when league leaders and reigning champions Real Madrid beat Almeria 1-0 at home to stretch the lead over the Catalan giants to a virtuall unassilable 9 point.
FC Barcelona now have lost the title and only have the UEFA Champions League competition to look forward to and rescue their season. The Blaugrana captain Carles Puyol has rang the alarm bells and insists that the entire unit needs to think about the current situation and underlines the side’s inefficienc to hold onto their lead as the main reason why they have let the Spanish championship title slip away from their grasp.
Puyol reflects:
“We can’t give up but it is getting tougher all the time. We’re finding it increasingly hard to win. We are unlikely to win the League if we can’t win two games in a row.
“We do need to think hard about this. We do the hard part, getting a lead, and then we stop creating chances. We have to get better in this respect because when we take the lead our opponents ought to open up.
“There are a lot of experienced players in the dressing room and we have to improve.”
But even if Barca do improve in the remaining six weeks of the Spanish season, it is most unlikely that they would be able to overhaul that 9 point advantage that Real Madrid have over their arch rivals Barcelona. Or maybe, Carles Puyol is speaking about the improvement next season.