Real Madrid midfielder Angel di Maria has said the players must treat the final five league games as individual finals as they chase La Liga glory.
In a season on many twists and turns, Los Blancos moved above Barcelona again and level on points with Atletico de Madrid at the top of the table after seeing off Almeria 4-0 on Saturday night. Atletico have a game in hand and could re-establish their three point lead.
And di Maria, who opened the scoring at the Santiago Bernabeu, told journalists his teammates must treat each game like a final from now until the end of the campaign. He added they must not get distracted by what others around them are doing.
He stated: “We know there are a lot of twists in the La Liga. We started down the table, then we took the lead… We’re still thinking about ourselves, about the fact that there are several ‘finals’ left and we have to play them as such. We want to play well. The match against Dortmund was just a misstep and we don’t want to repeat it.”
The Argentina international then switched his attention to Madrid’s next challenge – the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona on Wednesday.
“It has nothing to do with La Liga or the Champions League and hopefully we’ll play well. It’s a final and they will come out and do their best. We’re on track. We have to keep doing our work and continue in that way. We’re fine as we are. Finals are different games,” he commented.