Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano has said that there is no margin for error on Saturday when the Catalan club face Granada in the final game of the Spanish Primera Division season.
Luis Enrique's men travel to Andalucia with a victory sealing Barca's 24th La Liga success, but any other result will open the door for Real Madrid. Los Blancos, who are one point behind, also play on Saturday, kicking off at Deportivo at the same time as their rivals.
"We are one match away and we know that we have our future in our hands," Mascherano told ESPN's Quique Wolff. "It is going to be a complicated match, like the one we had a few weeks back, but we know there is no margin for error and that means that we have to try our best and avoid any type of accidents."
���� There is no margin for error against Granada, says Mascherano: https://t.co/lX35rbjxUZ pic.twitter.com/W49RX1CETe
- FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 12, 2016
The Argentine international pointed to a good team unity in the dressing room as the reason the club were able to recover from a dip in form that saw Champions League elimination accompanied by a La Liga run of one point in four games. The slump allowed Atletico and Real Madrid back into the title race, although Barcelona bounced back to win their past four top-flight matches and remain on top.
"Those are the moments in which you see how people really are, the bad times show who is who and how each person behaves," Mascherano said. "Thank God we have a great dressing room and during that poor dynamic that haunted us for three or four matches we were always clear that we were all going to work together to change it. We were able to do that over the last few games. Now we just have this last game and the Copa del Rey final. I think that if we can achieve these two goals, we will finish with a great season."
Mascherano admitted that it stung to be eliminated by Atletico Madrid from Champions League contention, but gave credit to the work fellow Argentina Diego Simeone has done.
"It is incredible. Everyone talks about style and football is not always played the same way," the 31-year-old said. "You can reach goals by different paths and what he has done is worthy of praise. You have to enjoy the way that Atletico defends. What they do, they do very well. They don't only defend, but they counter-attack very well and they have players who can score. When you add to that their intensity and their solid line of defense, they are a very tough team, not just for this edition of Champions League. In other years they have also eliminated great clubs and they have won La Liga in Europe and Copa del Rey and it is because they have a group of players who believe in his ideas."