I agree with Ahli38 that Real Madrid has chances to catch up with Barça, and disagree with swogerino because there is no need of 3 consecutive loses at all (which is highly unlikely): every draw for Barcelona, if Madrid wins, cuts the difference in 2 points. In 16 matchdays (the ones remaining) chances are that they manage to do it. In fact, a few months ago the situation was the opposite, and look how easily Barcelona has managed to overtake Madrid.
If there weren't a personal meeting ahead where Real Madrid has an iron opportunity to score three points at the same time and deprive Barcelona of three points, thus reducing the gap to 5 points, I would consider that the championship is already over. Teams that are at the top of the standings rarely lose points, so 8 points difference is a huge distance.
I don't think they have to lose matches to lose the gap. As I said before, take into account that there are 16 matchdays remaining, and if in 4 of these games Madrid wins and Barcelona draws (which is still very reasonable), the gap evaporates. Not to talk about the Clásico, which is a great opportunity to close the gap by 3 points as KTChampions said.
Of course, this is not the best position for Real Madrid, but they still have chances: more difficult things have been seen in football.
