Ousmane Dembele’s strike left Barcelona three points clear at the top of La Liga with a tense 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid on Sunday. Capitalizing on the defeat of champions Real Madrid by Villarreal, Barcelona recorded an impressive victory at the Metropolitano.
Away from suspended top-scorer Robert Lewandowski, Xavi picked on Ansu Fati in his stead, but it was Dembele who made the difference in the 22nd minute, completing a clever move.
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Atlético increased the pressure, a brilliant Ronald Araujo clearing the line at the death for Antoine Griezmann, but Diego Simeone’s side could not find the equaliser.
Both teams ended with 10 men after Ferran Torres and Stefan Savic were sent off for brawling with each other on the floor as tempers flared.
The defeat means that Atlético are fifth, 14 points behind leaders Barcelona.
“We are very happy, we knew it was a difficult place to go, that Real Madrid had slipped up and it was a chance we had to take,” Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets told DAZN.
“Although they came out strongly in the second half, we knew how to control the game. We suffered in the end, but those are three very good points.”
Barcelona have conceded just six goals in their first 16 La Liga matches, but Griezmann twice came close to finding the equalizer for Atletico.
The Catalan had only two shots on target and Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak said his side deserved more.
“We had a good game except for the first 25 minutes,” Oblak told DAZN.
“We made good pressing, we had chances, but lacked a bit of luck to score. I think in general we had a good game and we could have scored, but the ball didn’t go in.
“We started poorly, the first 25 minutes we had little confidence, and later we woke up, but 1-0 down it was already difficult.”
decisive dembele
Youngster Fati’s early effort was brilliantly blocked by the giant Jose Jimenez as Barcelona dominated the early exchanges.
The coach opted to play with four midfielders instead of his usual three, starting with both Sergio Busquets and Frankie de Jong, as well as youngsters Pedri and Gavi.
Xavi said on Saturday that Atletico barely had any flaws in their defense but Pedri exposed one to set up the opening goal.
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The midfielder moved quickly to exploit space in front of the box in the 22nd minute, before feeding it to Gavi, who prepared Dembele to clinically slot home.
Pedri could have doubled the lead moments later when Atlético foolishly gifted him the ball with a poor pass-back, but he took his finish too late and was denied by Nahuel Molina.
Marcos Llorente had Atletico’s first good chance after half an hour when Griezmann delicately scooped a ball over the defense to set him up, but Araujo deflected his effort into the side netting.
Gimenez went narrowly wide with Marc-Andre ter Stegen as the hosts began to take back control.
The German goalkeeper pulled off a superb save down the stretch to deny the pink-haired Griezmann, who was becoming increasingly dominant against his former side.
Griezmann smashed a high hit over the crossbar as Atlético began the second half in determined manner, pushing Barca deeper.
Only his compatriot Dembele offered the leaders an outlet on the break and he deflected a drive into the side-netting.
Xavi brought on Franck Casey for De Jong and it helped to steady the ship, with Barcelona managing stretches of possession that frustrated the home fans and saw Sting forced out of the game.
Red cards for Torres and Savic brought life back into the game in stoppage time and Griezmann would have snatched a point for his team but for Araujo’s crucial clearance on the line.
The victory has given Xavi a sigh of relief from the criticism and has left Barcelona in a low spirits ahead of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)