Alvaro Arbeloa has talked up Real Madrid's chances of winning the La Liga title at the expense of Barcelona. The Spanish coach watched his men bounce back from two consecutive defeats with a 2-1 win over Celta Vigo last night.
Madrid took the lead through an excellent Aurelien Tchouameni strike only for Borja Iglesias to level. A last-gasp Federico Valverde deflected effort secured a hard-fought victory for Los Blancos.
The win means Arbeloa's side move back to within a point of Barca for the time being. The Catalans are in action on Saturday night when they travel to Athletic Bilbao.
Arbeloa defiant after Madrid win
There were reports following Madrid's 1-0 loss to Getafe that Arbeloa's players had lost all hope of winning the La Liga title. They had all but accepted defeat to Barca in the race to become La Liga champions.
Arbeloa has refuted those suggestions by insisting his team will be fighting until the end to win the title. He told reporters after the Celta win (via Madrid Zone):
"We will compete for La Liga until the end. There are 33 points left to compete for. It's like La Liga hasn't even started yet."
Madrid have important fixtures ahead including the Champions League last 16 tie against Manchester City. They face Pep Guardiola's Cityzens in the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday (March 11th).
The Spaniard will be hoping that Bilbao do his side a favor tonight and beat the Blaugrana. Those hopes will be slim though given Flick's troops beat them 5-0 in the Supercopa de Espana semi-final in January and 4-0 in the La Liga reverse fixture in November.
Vinicius Junior echoes Arbeloa's verdict
Arbeloa has got the best out of Vinicius Junior since replacing Xabi Alonso as caretaker coach in January. The Brazilian attacker was out of sorts under Alonso but has bounced back and been crucial in recent months.
Vinicius wasn't on the scoresheet against Celta but played an important role in the win. He agreed with his manager's stance over battling until the end in the La Liga title race (via Madrid Zone):
"At Real Madrid, we never give up until the end. Today's win was a huge boost, the points were important. This win shows we are ready for any scenario."
Vinicius is tasked with being Madrid's main man at the moment amid Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham's absences. Both are injured and are likely to miss the first-leg encounter with City next week.