Madrid, Oct 1 (IANS) Real Madrid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo said Monday that he is confident his side can go and take all three points from their visit to Barcelona’s Camp Nou Stadium next Sunday.
Ronaldo scored a hat-trick, including two penalties as Real Madrid defeated Deportivo la Coruna 5-1 Sunday night. The win keeps Real Madrid eight points behind Barca in the La Liga, reports Xinhua.
Defeats away to Sevilla and Getafe, as well as a home draw against Valencia have been expensive for Madrid, who never recovered an eight point deficit from their main rivals.
Should Madrid lose in Barcelona they would be 11 points behind Barca, a huge deficit for a team that only dropped 14 points in the whole of last season. But Ronaldo is confident they can repeat last year’s feat when they won 2-1 in the Camp Nou to virtually assure the title.
“We know it is going to be hard to play in Barcelona,” he admitted.
“We are playing away from home and we will have to concentrate and be confident to win there. I think we are going to win. We have the quality to win at Camp Nou and we will see what happens.”
Ronaldo looked back at the Deportivo game in which his side were forced to fightback after a sluggish start which saw them fall behind to a Riki goal before Ronaldo’s hat-trick and further goals from Angel de Maria and Pepe assured the points.
“The truth is we were a bit sluggish at the start. But after the first goal we did well to turn things around. We always felt we can get back into a match. We know we can’t afford another error or to drop any more points,” said the attacking midfielder.
“It’s always good to score goals but the main thing is to be able to help the team,” he said.
