Ronald Koeman has not given up on Barcelona winning LaLiga as they face a pivotal run of fixtures that could define their season, starting with Elche at home on Wednesday.
Barca sit fourth in the table after only managing a draw at home to Cadiz at the weekend, a surprise result that ended a streak of seven successive league wins.
However, with leaders Atletico Madrid losing at home to Levante, meaning they have managed just one victory in their previous four outings, Koeman retains hope his team can make up ground and get involved in a title race.
Atleti have a three-point cushion over second-placed Real Madrid, who have played a game more than their neighbours, while Barcelona are eight points adrift.
In between the two Clasico rivals are Sevilla, to whom Koeman's side travel to play this weekend in league action. They then host the same opponents next Tuesday in the second leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final, Barca needing to overturn a 2-0 deficit from the previous meeting if they are to progress.
"I still believe that we can fight for the championship," Koeman told the media ahead of the visit of Elche to Camp Nou. "Results are showing that each team can come down.
"It will depend on the two games that come, which are very important to fight for the title.
"Then, in the cup, we have to come back. In the two competitions, we can do things. This week, we have three games that are important.
"It is difficult because we have to overcome a home game against Sevilla without an audience, with an audience it would be easier."
Barca had 20 attempts and 81 per cent of possession against Cadiz but were punished for their wastefulness when Clement Lenglet was ruled to have fouled Ruben Sobrino in the penalty area, allowing Alex Fernandez to convert for an 89th-minute equaliser for the visitors with their only shot on target.
While they have scored 50 goals in LaLiga this campaign – the most by any team in the competition – Koeman wants to see his players become more ruthless in attack.
"The problem is not that we do not create. It would be worse if we did not create opportunities," the Dutchman said when reflecting on Sunday's performance.
"We must ask for more effectiveness from the players at the top. We create opportunities and we did not score to make it 2-0.
"These are important moments and, this season, we lack effectiveness. The percentage of goals is low for a team like Barcelona."
Koeman confirmed that Ronald Araujo is not yet ready to return from injury, though the defender is "improving" and could feature in either of the upcoming games against Sevilla.
Eddie Howe staying grounded after Newcastle’s ‘amazing night’ against PSG
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe will not allow Newcastle to get ahead of themselves despite seeing them dismantle Champions League giants Paris St Germain.
The 4-1 victory over the 2020 runners-up at St James’ Park took the Magpies – playing in the competition for the first time in 20 years – to the top of Group F after two games.
However, head coach Howe was refusing to be carried away by a performance and a result which brought back memories of the club’s 3-2 Champions League win over Barcelona 26 years ago.
Howe, who inherited a Newcastle side seemingly heading for the Sky Bet Championship less than two years ago, said: “Going from the difficult moment we were in to now, it’s a great lesson for us not to get ahead of ourselves.
“We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, but we want to keep going and we take nothing for granted. Amazing night, but we’ve got to continue to work hard from here.
“It goes without saying we hope that gives us that belief that we need to be successful in this competition. Against Milan in our first game, there was an element of us not quite hitting the levels that we expected of ourselves.
“But I think it’s only by doing that you can truly prove to yourself that you can do it consistently, and I think today will go a long way towards proving that.
“But as I said, there are so many difficult games to come in this competition. It’s a small step forward, but there’s still a long, long way to go.
“The next game in this competition will be hugely important, but that goes to the back of our minds now as we focus back on to the Premier League and West Ham.”
The Magpies got off to a dream start when Bruno Guimaraes picked off Marquinhos’ ill-judged ball out of defence and although Gianluigi Donnarumma saved Alexander Isak’s initial shot, Miguel Almiron followed up to score.
Dan Burn made it 2-0 with a towering header six minutes before the break, after a lengthy VAR check, and Sean Longstaff put the Magpies in dreamland five minutes after the restart.
Lucas Hernandez’s 56th-minute header sparked something of a fightback, but ultimately it amounted to little and Fabian Schar smashed home a fourth in stoppage time to cement a remarkable win.
Howe was particularly pleased for Geordies Burn and Longstaff, lifelong supporters of the club they now represent with such distinction.
He said: “I really do respect the Geordies who have had life-long associations with the club and understand what it means to play for Newcastle and have a unique experience, really, so for Sean to score and play how he did and for Dan, they’re amazing moments in their careers.”
A crowd of 52,009 witnessed a remarkable night on Tyneside, although the visiting fans, some of whom briefly caused troubled as they were escorted to the stadium by police, left less than impressed by what superstar Kylian Mbappe and his team-mates produced on the pitch.
Asked if he took responsibility for the performance, PSG boss Luis Enrique said: “Yes absolutely, there’s no doubt about that, I’m the first person to be responsible for what happened this evening. Of course I’m responsible for it.
“I think the outcome of the game was fair, although the scoreline was perhaps a little bit too much in their favour, not really a fair reflection.
“But of course we made such careless mistakes which led to their goals and when you play at this level, you can’t afford to do that.”
Wales defender Ben Cabango limps out of Swansea’s win over Norwich
Swansea centre-back Ben Cabango has given Wales boss Rob Page another injury worry after he limped out of his side’s 2-1 home win over Norwich in the Championship.
Wales are already without Aaron Ramsey and Brennan Johnson for the vital Euro 2024 qualifier with Croatia on October 15 and Swansea boss Michael Duff confirmed Cabango suffered a hamstring issue after he went off in the second half of his club’s victory on Wednesday night.
“Ben did the right thing in coming off. He felt something in his hamstring in the first half and then again later on,” said Duff.
“If he isn’t fit for the weekend, then I don’t think he’ll be able to go off to play for Wales during the international window.”
The win gave Duff’s new-look side a haul of 10 points from a possible 12 in their last four Championship matches having failed to win in any of their opening seven games in all competitions.
“I was delighted with the result and the performance. We started with real intent and the first goal came from a high press,” said Duff.
“Then their goal came from us getting our press wrong. In the second half we defended our box well and got the winner.
“Norwich are one of the best teams in the league and we finished very strongly against them. The fans really got behind us in the added six minutes at the end because our lads were out on their feet.”
Norwich boss David Wagner was “very disappointed” after seeing his side fail to press home their advantage in the second half.
“We didn’t do our job properly in each box, goals change games and we didn’t take our chances,” said Wagner.
“That’s three away defeats in a row now and we lost a game that we could have won. We have to be better in both boxes.
“After two away defeats in a row we knew we had a chance to pick up some points in an important game. It was there for us, but we didn’t do our job.
“Obviously the result is very disappointing. Performance-wise, first half we were not good, second half we were much better.
“Second half we have to kill the game. We had enough very good opportunities until 75-80 minutes.
“After that they put pressure on us with set-pieces. If you don’t kill the game, then one situation can cost you.
“It’s very frustrating that we were not clinical in both boxes today and have not won a game we had opportunities to win at 1-1.”
Mark Robins proud of brave Coventry win over Blackburn
Mark Robins praised his brave Coventry side after they earned a narrow 1-0 victory over Blackburn at the CBS Arena.
Record signing Haji Wright nodded in on 85 minutes after Yasin Ayari’s effort had rebounded off the crossbar.
The Sky Blues had already hit the woodwork twice through Matty Godden and Bobby Thomas, while James Hill’s thunderous effort came back off the woodwork in the first half for Blackburn.
It meant back-to-back wins for the first time this season for Coventry, who beat QPR 3-1 at the weekend thanks to a brace from Ellis Simms.
“We started the brighter of the teams, had loads of energy, tried to execute what we wanted to do and did it pretty successfully to start with,” explained Robins.
“They got control in the second half of the first half and had a lot of possession and they can do that to you.
“You’ve got to be brave, work really hard to try and play through them and if you can do that and the first pass is a really good pass, then you can take out the majority of the team.
“With the pace of Ellis and Haji you can cause them problems and it looked that way. We had the spell in the second half when we created a lot more chances.
“The header is a brilliant header from Haji and he gets a lot of power on it and just waits for the right moment and the timing is perfect.
“It gives us a lead, having conceded a goal at the other end I thought he was going to give. Ben Wilson has got the ball in both hands and he has kicked the ball out of his hands by Moran.
“They are a good side and they will probably get fed up of hearing it, because they have played some really good teams now.
“I think they are a really good team and we’ve done really well to get the three points. Back-to-back wins for the first time this season which is really welcome.”
Blackburn head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson was defiant after his Rovers side suffered a fourth loss on the bounce, as well as seeing a goal disallowed when Andrew Moran was adjudged to have kicked the ball out of Ben Wilson’s hands before tapping in.
“Disappointed with the result of course, I actually saw a really good team, great spirit and togetherness against a good opponent in an away game,” said the Dane.
“I think we were quite solid in everything we did with the ball, without the ball, we created chances and we had big moments where we probably should have done better.
“We need to be more clinical in the box to get results but I think the boys have played an excellent game so if we keep on doing this then we will get some results.
“From my distance it was a strange situation wasn’t it? The referee had no clue if it was a goal or not, the linesman did nothing and after a short chat suddenly it was a free kick.
“I haven’t seen it back, then after that we have an extremely big moment, maybe one or two against one with the goalkeeper, then we are leading 1-0, but a good performance from my players for sure.
“We are doing a lot of good things, we have been giving too easy goals away, I think we were quite solid today mostly and we have created plenty of goal chances to win games, but of course we need to score.”
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