Andres Iniesta: Barcelona will fight until the end

The Spanish playmaker has refused to throw in the towel despite the 10-point gap to Madrid, while stating that the victory over Valencia was a considerable boost to his side

Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta has insisted that his side are still in the race for the Primera Division title.

The Catalan club are 10 points behind Real Madrid in the Liga standings after slipping considerably off the pace in recent weeks, with two draws and one defeat since the start of the calendar year. 

With Barca due to host los Blancos in April, Iniesta remains hopeful that his side will be able to regain top spot if Madrid drop points.

"We will fight until the end," Iniesta told reporters. "This is our only goal: to compete and collect three points every week to be ready in case of a Madrid slip-up.

"The truth is that we have dropped many points on the road and that is seen in the table.

"To win the Liga, you have to be consistent at home and on the road, and this has been hard for us."

Barca head into Sunday's game at Atletico Madrid on the back of a 5-1 victory over Valencia and Iniesta expressed his delight with the team's display against los Che.

"We played a very complete match against Valencia and the result should give us a significant boost," Iniesta said.

"Now we will visit Atletico and we know this will be a hard match because they are a good team and they have been growing after the arrival of Diego Simeone, but we hope we can continue collecting points."

Since November, Goal.com has been publishing exclusive extracts from Graham Hunter's highly-anticipated new book, 'Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World'. The very last extract looks at Andres Iniesta's risky return from injury in the 2009 Champions League Final and how he was described by Wayne Rooney as the 'best midfielder in the world'. Don't miss it!