Mourinho: Barca still in title race

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said the La Liga title race is far from over despite Barcelona losing further ground at the top.

Pep Guardiola’s side are five points behind Real after they were held to a 1-1 draw at Espanyol but Mourinho was quick to respond when asked if Barca’s title challenge was over.

“No. We’ve lost five points in two days. We lost three in Levante and two in Santander. In a couple of days and a couple of matches you can easily lose fivepoints,” Mourinho said.

Meanwhile, the Madrid boss shrugged off claims that Cristiano Ronaldo is unhappy at the club.

Ronaldo scored Madrid’s fifth in their weekend league hammering of Granada but the 26-year-old declined to celebrate with his team-mates.

The Portuguese winger has come in for criticism from a section of Madrid fans who claim his style of play is too selfish.

“I think he (Cristiano Ronaldo) is doing great,” Mourinho said.

“I think that it’s a lot more relevant and important that he celebrated the goals that the team won with.”

“We didn’t win the match by scoring the last goal in the 90th minute. We won the match with the first three goals and he celebrated the importance of those goals.”

“The fact that he didn’t celebrate the fifth goal in the 90th minute when winning by four or five is not relevant.”

“I think that this is normal. If a player is being criticised for not celebrating a goal, I should be criticised for not celebrating any of the goals that we scored. My team scored five goals and I didn’t celebrate any of them.”

“I didn’t even get up from my seat. If you want to criticise someone then criticise me. If you want to say that someone was mad then say it was me. I wasn’t mad though.”