Ousmane Dembele’s strike despatched Barcelona three factors clear on the prime of La Liga with a tense 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid on Sunday. Capitalising on champions Actual Madrid’s defeat by Villarreal, Barcelona got down to make an announcement victory on the Metropolitano.
Shorn of suspended prime scorer Robert Lewandowski, Xavi chosen Ansu Fati up entrance in his place, nevertheless it was Dembele who made the distinction, ending a slick transfer within the twenty second minute.
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Atletico ramped up the strain, with the very good Ronald Araujo clearing off the road from Antoine Griezmann on the dying, however Diego Simeone’s aspect couldn’t discover an equaliser.
Each groups completed with 10 males after Ferran Torres and Stefan Savic have been despatched off for brawling with one another on the ground as tempers soured.
Defeat means Atletico languish in fifth, 14 factors behind leaders Barcelona.
“We’re very completely happy, we knew it was a troublesome place to go, that Actual Madrid had slipped up and it was an opportunity we needed to take,” Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets instructed DAZN.
“Though they got here out strongly within the second half, we knew management the sport. In the long run we suffered, however these are three superb factors.”
Barcelona have conceded simply six objectives of their first 16 La Liga matches however Griezmann twice got here near discovering the equaliser Atletico craved.
The Catalans solely mustered two pictures on course and Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak stated his aspect deserved extra.
“We had sport, other than the primary 25 minutes,” Oblak instructed DAZN.
“We pressed nicely, we had probabilities, however lacked a little bit of luck to attain. I believe that we had sport typically and we may have scored, however the ball didn’t go in.
“We began badly, the primary 25 minutes we had little confidence, and later we awoke, however at 1-0 down it’s already tougher.”
Decisive Dembele
Teenager Fati had an early effort brilliantly blocked by the sprawling Jose Gimenez, as Barcelona dominated the opening exchanges.
The coach opted to play with 4 midfielders as an alternative of his standard three, beginning with each Sergio Busquets and Frenkie de Jong in addition to kids Pedri and Gavi.
Xavi stated on Saturday Atletico barely have any gaps of their defence however Pedri uncovered one to create the opening aim.
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The midfielder burst ahead within the twenty second minute to capitalise on house in entrance of the field, earlier than feeding Gavi, who teed up Dembele to clinically slot house.
Pedri may have doubled the lead moments later when Atletico foolishly gifted him the ball with a poor pass-back, however he delayed his end too lengthy and Nahuel Molina denied him.
Marcos Llorente had Atletico’s first first rate alternative after half an hour when Griezmann scooped a ball delicately over the defence to set him in, however Araujo deflected his effort into the aspect netting.
Gimenez headed narrowly huge with Marc-Andre ter Stegen rooted to the spot because the hosts started to wrestle again management.
The German goalkeeper made an outstanding save at full stretch to disclaim the pink-haired Griezmann, who was changing into more and more influential towards his former aspect.
Griezmann whipped a strike excessive over the crossbar as Atletico started the second half in decided trend, pushing Barca deeper and deeper.
Solely his compatriot Dembele provided the leaders an outlet on the break and he had a drive deflected into the side-netting.
Xavi introduced on Franck Kessie for De Jong and it helped regular the ship, with Barcelona managing some stretches of possession which annoyed the house followers and took the sting out of the sport.
Pink playing cards for Torres and Savic reignited the sport in stoppage time and Griezmann might need snatched some extent for his group however for Araujo’s essential clearance on the road.
The victory earns Xavi some respiratory room after criticism and fills Barcelona’s sails with wind forward of the approaching Spanish Tremendous Cup in Saudi Arabia.
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