After losing 3-2 to Malaga and separating the points gap with archrivals Barcelona, Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos confirmed that it's difficult to compete for La Liga's title blaming players for wasting chances.

"Once again we have dropped important points despite the team playing well in the first half," Ramos was quoted as saying on Real Madrid's official website.

"We had chances to score but we didn’t have any luck," he added.

The 26-year-old Ramos, who played the full 90 minutes of Real Madrid's defeat by Malaga, asked his teammates to concentrate on the field and not think about other teams' results. "We shouldn’t think about the league leaders or anybody else," he said.

"We should only think about ourselves. We must be self-critical, and La Liga is now very difficult, practically impossible, but we need to keep on fighting," the defender said.

Real Madrid are third in the Spanish La Liga table with 33 points, 16 behind archrivals and leaders Barcelona after 17 matchdays.

Ramos praised Real Madrid influential captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas who had been left out of the team's lineup for the game against Malaga on Saturday.

"Iker is the captain and he will continue to be the captain because he is a great goalkeeper,” he said.

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