Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos vowed on Monday that his side would not give up its battle to win the Spanish La Liga title.
Real's 2-0 home defeat to FC Barcelona on Saturday leaves them needing their arch-rivals in the title race to drop at least four points for Ramos' side to have any chance of lifting the title.
Barcelona has a three-point lead over Real Madrid as well as superior goal advantage, but during Monday's press conference, Ramos claimed that nobody at Real Madrid considered the title to be lost.
"This team will fight to the death to win this league. We need to be at our strongest. Twenty-one points are still in play and they can drop points, so we need to win the seven remaining matches," he said on the club's website.
Real Madrid has some difficult games still to play, but Ramos looked to Barcelona's fixture to see where their rivals could drop points.
"We have to look at Barcelona's away games with Sevilla and Villarreal. There is a chance they won't take all of the points from those games, while we aim to take all of ours," he said, looking to draw inspiration from Real Madrid's penultimate title which they won in 2007.
"The league we won with Capello appeared to be lost but we ended up winning it," he said remembering how Real Madrid defeated Mallorca to win the La Liga.
Ramos also stood by Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini, who has come under criticism following the defeat, with some sectors of the Madrid based press following Saturday's defeat.
"We are standing by Pellegrini through thick and thin and we always have done. He has our full support."