Zinedine Zidane maintains Real Madrid can win the La Liga title for the second year running despite his side sitting 15 points behind rivals Barcelona , Soccerway reports.
Defeat at Espanyol last time out leaves Madrid with a huge task to catch Barca over the 12 remaining games, although on Thursday Ernesto Valverde ’ s men were held to a 1 - 1 draw at lowly Las Palmas.
Atletico Madrid are putting pressure on Barca , Diego Simeone ’ s side taking 37 points from the last 42 on offer to cut the gap to five ahead of their trip to Camp Nou on Sunday.
Madrid have a chance to move closer to the top two with a home game against Getafe on Saturday , with Zidane still believing Los Blancos can defend their title.
“ What we have to do is win games, that ’ s all, ” Zidane told a pre - match news conference on Friday. “Keep going to the end of the season . That’ s what we have to do and that’ s what we have to think about.
“ It’ s not easy to go out and win all the games but it ’ s what the players have to try and do . If we’ re always motivated and thinking about the game , then we can achieve something great.
“ There’ s always a league – it ’ s right to the end for every team . Perhaps everyone thinks the league is over but in football you can never give up . That’ s what we have to do . We have to get it into our heads that our remaining league games are important.
“ We’ re going to fight until the end of the league . It’ s complicated but it ’ s not impossible , that ’ s the difference between what I say and what you (the media ) say . It’ s difficult , it ’ s very difficult , but it ’ s not impossible.
“ We went on a run of five wins , that’ s football . Last Tuesday against Espanyol , we were angry to lose but we didn’ t expect to lose . We made some mistakes . When things go wrong you can ’ t just think about that, you have to look at the positives . Think about what we were doing before.
“ It will be difficult , yes, but it won ’ t be impossible. Look what’ s happening between the first and second teams , only five points different.
Did you expect that? If Atletico win then it ’ s only two points. Did anyone expect that? The league still exists and I’ m an optimist, always , until the very end ."
Inconsistency has dogged Madrid this season , Zidane ’ s side recording three heavy home wins in succession in La Liga , although they have failed to beat Fuenlabrada , Numancia and Leganes in the Copa del Rey at the Santiago Bernabeu .
And Zidane called for Madrid to renew their focus for Saturday ’ s home game with Getafe , although attention is being drawn to Tuesday’ s clash with Paris Saint- Germain in the second leg of their last - 16 Champions League tie.
“ We’ ve just lost a game and we want to do all we can to go and get a victory , ” Zidane said . “ We’ ve got to do the most we can on the pitch, we studied the opponent but we concentrate on ourselves . We have to go out and give everything . ”
