Barcelona are currently 7 points behind Real Madrid in the race for the La Liga title.

Despite Real Madrid’s gap over Barca, Barca president Joan Laporta is ‘very optimistic’ over Barca’s chances of catching up with Real Madrid.

Laporta believes Xavi has ‘excellent quality’ at his disposal in his squad, and with key injured players to return, the team will only get better.

“It feels stronger and we have more unity in the dressing room, and we also see that we are recovering the injured players,” Laporta said.

“Marc-Andre [ter Stegen] will soon be able to rejoin the squad. We have players of excellent quality like Robert [Lewandowski] and all those who make up the Barcelona first team.

“I’m very optimistic because I think we’ll get our reward and that the other rivals are going to stumble like we stumbled at the beginning of the season.

“What we are doing is working, fighting day by day, to stay in all the competitions to try and win them.”

League titles aren’t won with sentiments. Real’s main threat this season is Girona.