Following the 1-1 draw against Atletico Madrid on Sunday, it felt like Real Madrid had pretty much kissed goodbye to their hopes of retaining the La Liga title.
After all, the slip-up meant that league leaders Barcelona had the opportunity to increase their advantage at the top to ten points.
But, the Blaugrana failed to capitalise on the opening as they suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to UD Almeria last night, meaning Real Madrid remain seven points behind them.
And, now Mario Cortegana of The Athletic is reporting that there is a strong belief within the Real Madrid squad that they can still retain the La Liga title despite the gap between them and Barcelona currently.
The report claims that following Barça’s defeat to Almeria last night, the Real Madrid players’ Whatsapp group was very active, with messages of joy and even some jokes being exchanged among the squad members.
At the same time, Carlo Ancelotti and his staff were also understood to be happy with the outcome of their rivals’ match, after how things had panned out on Saturday.
The report states that the Italian and his team were upset at the amount of criticism that they had received after the draw against Atletico as they felt that the detractors were not factoring the toll that the comeback win against Liverpool earlier that week had taken.
Either way, Real Madrid squad members continue to believe that they can scale the gap between themselves and Barcelona and successfully defend their La Liga crown.
With the battle for the league title heating up, the Clasico at Camp Nou on March 19 will have major repercussions on how the race could unfold.
But before that, Real Madrid will host Barça in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final later this week. A victory here could be the ideal catalyst for Ancelotti & co. to push for the title while denting their rivals’ confidence further.
