Arbeloa insists Real Madrid ‘haven’t lost La Liga’ despite Girona draw

Madrid, Spain – Real Madrid’s stuttering domestic form took another hit on Friday night as they were held 1-1 at home by high-flying Girona, yet manager Álvaro Arbeloa refused to sound the death knell on his side’s La Liga ambitions.

Federico Valverde’s crisp 51st-minute opener looked set to revive morale at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, only for Thomas Lemar to curl in a sumptuous equaliser 11 minutes later and leave Los Blancos seven points adrift of leaders Barcelona, who can stretch that gap to nine with a derby win over Espanyol.

The draw compounds a bruising seven-day stretch in which Madrid also fell 2-1 at Real Mallorca and suffered an identical reverse to Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final. Confidence was brittle even before kick-off, yet Arbeloa, who rested key figures against Mallorca, opted for a full-strength XI against Girona in a bid to reignite the title charge.

The star-studded line-up laboured through a sterile first half and, even after Valverde broke the deadlock, could not subdue a resilient Girona outfit that clawed back parity and withstood late pressure to escape with a point.

Speaking afterwards, Arbeloa struck a defiant tone: “I’ll only accept that we’ve lost it on the day it actually happens. Until then, we keep fighting.”

The calendar offers little respite. Madrid now switch their focus to European duty, travelling to Munich for Tuesday’s return leg against a Bayern side that has lost only twice all season. Overturning a one-goal deficit against the German champions will demand the kind of performance that has eluded Madrid in recent outings, but Arbeloa insists belief remains intact both at home and abroad.