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Real leveller a "jug of cold water" for Barca's Luis Enrique

Football Soccer - Barcelona v Real Madrid - Spanish La Liga Santander- Nou Camp Stadium, Barcelona, Spain - 3/12/16. Real Madrid's coach Zinedine Zidane and Barcelona's coach Luis Enrique during the "Clasico". REUTERS/Albert Gea (Reuters)

By Richard Martin BARCELONA (Reuters) - Barcelona coach Luis Enrique could not hide his disappointment after Sergio Ramos' 90th minute equaliser denied his side victory against Real Madrid and admitted they must improve in many areas to catch the league leaders. The champions looked set to reduce the gap with Real after Luis Suarez headed in Neymar's free-kick early in the first half, but Ramos' late header, also from a set piece, leaves them still six points adrift. "We feel like we've had a jug of cold water thrown over us. I think we deserved to win the game because of how we played and we are really disappointed to have conceded a goal in the last minute," Luis Enrique told a news conference. "We had it in our hands, we couldn't close it out, I think we deserved it, but that’s the way it is. Football has not been fair on us but it's not about justice or injustice, it's about how often you put the ball in the opponents' goal." Barcelona have drawn their last three league games 1-1 and surrendered nine points already at home, one more than they dropped at the Nou Camp over the entirety of last season. "If you look at our numbers at home, it's clear that we are very far from what we need if we want to be champions. It's not what we're used to and it's preventing us from being top. In fact, the reason we are not top is because of the points we have dropped at home," said the coach. "We've been trying to hit the ground running since the first week, but now there's a team ahead of us who have gone a long time without losing and have a very big squad that helps them pick up points. "We have to improve in every aspect of our play. We're ambitious and we know we have a great team. We need to be more effective, we need to have more possession and press better." (Reporting by Richard Martin)