Barcelona moved a step closer to defending their La Liga crown after edging 10-man Atlético Madrid 2-1, capitalising on Real Madrid’s earlier defeat on Saturday.
struck the decisive goal in the 87th minute for Hansi Flick’s side after had cancelled out Atlético’s opener from just before half-time.
Atlético were forced to play the entire second half with 10 men after was sent off late in first-half stoppage time.
Barcelona were also fortunate to avoid going down to 10 men themselves early in the second half when defender had his red card overturned following a VAR review.
The victory served as revenge for Barcelona after their heavy 4-0 defeat at the same venue in the Copa del Rey, with the two sides set to meet again in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Barcelona’s sixth consecutive league victory moved them seven points ahead of Real Madrid with eight matches left to play after Los Blancos were stunned 2-1 by Mallorca.
Atlético, meanwhile, suffered a third straight defeat in all competitions and remain one point behind third-placed Villarreal, who face Girona on Monday.
Diego Simeone’s men had taken the lead in the 39th minute when floated a pass into the box for Simeone, who controlled brilliantly before firing beyond .
Barcelona responded almost immediately. Rashford combined neatly with before drilling a low shot through the legs of goalkeeper just three minutes later.
The turning point arrived in stoppage time before the break when González brought down on the edge of the box.
The referee initially issued a second yellow card but upgraded it to a straight red after consulting the pitchside monitor.
Moments after the restart, Atlético thought the sides were level in numbers when Martín was shown a red card for a challenge on .
However, VAR intervened once more and the booking was reduced to yellow, sparking angry protests from the home side.
Yamal remained Barcelona’s biggest threat as the visitors pushed for a winner, while was denied twice by Musso.
But Musso could do little in the closing moments when he parried ’s effort straight into the path of Lewandowski, who reacted quickest to force home the winner.
