Puyol: "The League is complicated, but not lost"

The Barça captain appealled to the pride and professionalism of the team to keep fighting for the League title, until the end of the season. The central defender accepted that Barça didn’t play well in the first half in Pamplona, and believes that the state of the pitch was more detrimental to them than the intense cold.

"Clearly we're not happy with the match at Osasuna, but the League is not lost yet. 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". In this way Carles Puyol expressed the feelings of the squad after the defeat in Pamplona, ​​but also said how they'll face up to the rest of the season. If one thing the Barça Captain is clear on, it's that this team haven't given up on the League, and won't ignore it simply to focus on the two other major competitions that are at stake. "We will fight for all three competitions, and who thinks otherwise is mistaken".

For Puyol, Barca must now carry on in the League the same way they did in other years, when they were leading for much of the season. "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" said the central defender. He added that, although they're dependent on Real Madrid to be able to reduce the distance between them, their objective is " to focus on ourselves. We have to try and win, and if we get there, great, and if not, at least we tried".

Puyol didn't want to make any excuses when talking about the defeat in the match against Osasuna, but did acknowledge that the state of the pitch in the Reyno de Navarra affected their game. "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. It was hard to keep your feet, and that's what hurt us most, and took us a long time to adapt to". (via FCBarcelona.com)