Keita wants no more points dropped

The Malian considers Sunday’s trip to the Vicente Calderón to be an essential moment in FC Barcelona bid to win the league title. “The season is long and anything can happen in football” said a man who hasn’t given up the chase yet. Keita says that the team “will do our very best to try to win as many games as possible”.

Seydou Keita has spoken about the importance of the game this weekend at Atlético Madrid, in which they will be hoping to narrow the ten-point gap on Real Madrid, who play the same day at 16.00, meaning they'll already know how their rivals have done. "This is a very important match, and with ten points between us, we can't afford to drop any more points" he said. However, he knows that the challenge ahead is anything but easy, especially against "a team that's so strong now ... it'll will be tough and difficult".

But as he says "anything can happen in football ... and we'll fight to the end." But there are no hard feelings about the compromised situation they are in, because "if Madrid are leaders, it's because they deserve to be ... we just have to do everything we can to win as many games as possible".

Keita was asked about his personal situation at FC Barcelona, and answered that "there is no time to talk about my future at the moment. This is a very important moment of the season and what we have to do is focus on the team."

He was also asked whether his own future at the club might be tied in any way to the presence or not of Pep Guardiola, a fervent admirer of his. Keita claimed the issues were unrelated, simply stating that the manager is very important for all of the players and all of them hope he'll stay on at the club at the end of the season.

Keita ended by saying that he would support any motion to change the dates of the African Nations Cup, saying "it was a bit difficult for me to be so far away and not be able to help my team mates. But I was with my national team, which is very important to me and my country. The African Nations Cup comes at an important point in the season, and it's difficult for the players. A change of date would be better for us". (via FCBarcelona.com)