Bale believes Real Madrid can still win La Liga

Gareth Bale, heady after his blanco side's El Clasico win, believes his side can still win La Liga after mounting a remarkable comeback against Barcelona, the blaugranas first defeat in 40 games.

Madrid have cut the difference to 7 points between them and La Liga's leaders, but with with seven league games to play, Bale pointed out just how important this win will be as a confidence boost as they head into the business end of the season.

The quarter-finals of the Champions League are next week and a possible re-ignition of the Spanish Primera Liga is not impossible says Bale:

"If we wanted to win the league this was a game we had to win," said the Welshman.

"You never know, football does funny things to teams when you lose and you never know what could happen. All they need is a few bad results, we need a few good ones and we're right back in it.

"The most important thing today was to get the win to build confidence for the rest of the season.

"There's still the Champions League as well, which we're really looking forward to."

Zinedine Zidane's first Clasico in charge couldn't have gone any better.

"Maybe being out of the Copa del Rey helps a little bit, we've had less games. We're feeling strong, confident now, and it's one final push until the end of the season.

"Tonight really does put us mentally in a strong position, we can beat anyone on our day and we showed that.

"Barcelona have been saying they're the best team and we beat them in their own back yard tonight.

"We had a game plan, we know we've got speed on the counter-attack so we used that to our advantage. We know obviously if you attack them they're not the best defensive team in the world."

Zidane spoke about the carry-over effect that the madridistas will take into their match against Wolfsburg:

"We know what we want to do in the Champions League. Very few teams win here and I am happy for the players and for the fans who can be proud of their players.

"For confidence it is very important to win here for the rest of the season and just before playing a Champions League game in Germany."

Zizou was hesitant to say that this win has blown La Liga wide open:

"First we have to get past Atletico, we are still third and then we will see.

"To win here is a huge reward for the players. They played a huge game."

Luis Enrique was eager to move on and put this setback behind them:

"This game already doesn't exist for me," said Enrique.

"There is no pain. We came into the game on the back of many games without losing, but defeats can teach you things and the players know that.

"Every title has its difficulties, especially when you are playing against opponents with the same objectives."