The squad still believes in the League

The Barça players highlighted the difficulty of winning at the Vicente Calderón. The squad agrees: “We’ll fight until the end. That’s this team’s spirit”.



Important victory in a difficult stadium (1-2) to keep in the hunt for La Liga. Barça’s first team, through captain Carles Puyol, sent a clear message of optimism to Barça supporters: “we will fight for La Liga until it is mathematically over. It’s difficult [to win it] but we must try and win the three points each week.”

Along these lines, the Barça defender talked about the squad’s ambitions: “we have always competed. We will not give up, we’ll keep on trying until the end.”

Great team attitude

After claiming three vital points in Madrid, Puyol talked about the match against Atletico Madrid: “we had a test by fire tonight and the team showed our character.”

The captain, like other Barça players, was disappointed with the poor pitch condition, “the pitch wasn’t good for our type of play, but the team worked hard today.”

Here are the statements made by some of the players after the match:

Javier Mascherano:

“Coming here and playing is always difficult.

“We fought for this match, they played with a lot of intensity.

“Draws don’t suit us. If we want to have a chance, we have to win all of our matches.”

On Messi’s goal: “I was really far away, but it seemed to me that Messi didn’t ask for a wall.

“La Liga will be difficult to win. They have a 10 point advantage over us, but we are professionals and we have to keep on fighting. We’ll try to do our absolute best.

“We can’t allow ourselves to lose focus. We’ll try to win all of our matches until the end of the season.

“Atletico got a bit lucky. They also had the fans behind them and they hadn’t lost any games with their new manager. However, we managed to sort out the situation with our game

“What Guardiola told us stays in the dressing room. He congratulated us on how we competed.”

Dani Alves:

“The supporters need to keep on believing in us. We’ll fight until the end as long as there is a chance of winning. That’s the spirit of this team. We’ll keep on competing.

“I’m very pleased with the goal and for the team’s victory.

“We know that it was a difficult ground. The pitch was almost unplayable.

“Winning in stadiums like this one makes us stronger.

“I saw the space and Cesc’s excellent pass allowed me to score an easy goal.

“I dedicated the goal to my children, they are on holiday and I miss them.”

Víctor Valdés:

“Hard-fought victory in an imposing Calderón. We’re continuing our work and we’re earning points to fight for the Liga.”

Andres Iniesta:

“It was a very intense match and it was a great victory in a difficult stadium. Now it’s time for the national side.” (via FCBarcelona.com)