{"id":23100,"date":"2020-06-21T16:50:20","date_gmt":"2020-06-21T07:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=23100"},"modified":"2020-09-09T13:44:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T04:44:28","slug":"pique-is-not-one-to-shy-away-from-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2020\/06\/21\/pique-is-not-one-to-shy-away-from-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Pique Doesn&#8217;t Shy from Truth as Barcelona Face Tough Test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gerard Pique speaks his mind: Barcelona are inferior to Real Madrid again<\/p>\n<p>The veteran defender admitted after Friday&#8217;s dour 0-0 draw at Sevilla that it will be &#8220;difficult&#8221; for Quique Setien&#8217;s side to hold on to the top spot.<\/p>\n<p>So, it was no surprise to see him admit immediately after Friday night&#8217;s dismal 0-0 draw at Sevilla that Quique Setien&#8217;s side face an almighty battle with a resurgent Real to retain the Liga title.<\/p>\n<div class=\"dugout-video dugout-embed-eyJrZXkiOiI1RHlnb0hGUyIsInAiOiJmb290YmFsbHRyaWJlIiwicGwiOiIifQ==\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.dugout.com\/v3.1\/footballtribe.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n&#8220;It will be difficult to win this league. We will do everything we can. But from what I&#8217;ve seen in recent weeks, it would be a surprise if Real Madrid drop points.&#8221; Pique lamented, alluding to the fact that while Barca top the table, Madrid are just three points behind with a game in hand.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that while many supporters thought previous coach Ernesto Valverde was the main problem at Camp Nou, Setien hardly looks like the solution.<\/p>\n<p>It is worth remembering that after Pique spoke out in 2017, Barca went on to win La Liga.<\/p>\n<p>Barca may have won their first two games after the break, against Mallorca and Leganes, but they were troubled at times by two relegation-threatened adversaries. Sevilla were always going to provide a sterner test of the Blaugrana&#8217;s title credentials \u2013 and they failed it.<\/p>\n<p>Messi, as he so often does now, dropped deeper and deeper in his desperation to provide a creative spark in the engine room \u2013 but to no avail.<\/p>\n<p>This was not one of his better games and, basically, if he doesn&#8217;t perform, neither do Barca anymore.<\/p>\n<p>All is not lost, of course. This was arguably the toughest fixture the Catalans had left in La Liga. And Pique is probably wrong: Real might well drop points between now and the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>But he&#8217;s definitely right about one thing: it&#8217;s going to be difficult for this Barcelona side to win the title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gerard Pique speaks his mind: Barcelona are inferior to Real Madrid again The veteran defender admitted after Friday&#8217;s dour 0-0 draw at Sevilla that it will be &#8220;difficult&#8221; for Quique Setien&#8217;s side to hold on to the top spot. So, it was no surprise to see him admit immediately after Friday night&#8217;s dismal 0-0 draw at Sevilla that Quique Setien&#8217;s side face an almighty battle with a resurgent Real to retain the Liga title. &#8220;It will be difficult to win this league. We will do everything we can. But from what I&#8217;ve seen in recent weeks, it would be a surprise if Real Madrid drop points.&#8221; Pique lamented, alluding to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2020\/06\/21\/pique-is-not-one-to-shy-away-from-the-truth\/\" class=\"tribe-more-link\">Continue reading &#8220;Pique Doesn&#8217;t Shy from Truth as Barcelona Face Tough Test&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":23101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1639],"tags":[124,2147,1737,281,95],"class_list":["post-23100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-barcelona","tag-gerard-pique","tag-la-liga","tag-real-madrid","tag-slider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23210,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23100\/revisions\/23210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}