Barcelona 2-0 Atletico Madrid: Suarez and Messi sentence La Liga title race
Barça moved 11 points clear at the top with a late win against Atletico
Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi struck late as Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 2-0 at Camp Nou to inch closer to the La Liga title.
FC BARCELONA
2 ________________ 0
ATLÉTICO
LINE UP
FC BARCELONA
Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto (Semedo, 84'), Piqué, Lenglet, Jordi Alba, Busquets, Rakitic, Arhur (Malcom, 63'), Coutinho (Aleñá, 80'), Messi y Suárez.
ATLÉTICO
Oblak, Arias, Godín, Giménez, Filipe Luís (Morata, 57'), Arias (Correa, 33'), Saúl, Rodrigo (Juanfran, 88'), Thomas, Koke, Griezmann y Diego Costa.
GOLES
1-0, Luis Suárez (85'). Messi (86').
ÁRBITRO
Gil Manzano, del colegio extremeño. T.A.: Piqué (73'), Lenglet (77'), Suárez (86')/Thomas (26'), Giménez (27'), Godín (29'), Saúl (69'). T.R.: Diego Costa (27').
INCIDENCIAS
Partido correspondiente a la jornada número 31 de LaLiga disputado en el Camp Nou ante 92.453 espectadores.
The win moves Barca 11 points clear of Atletico with just seven games to go.
Atletico were reduced to 10 men in the first half when Diego Costa was sent off for saying something to the referee.
A string of fine saves from Jan Oblak kept Barca at bay until the 85th minute but he could do nothing as Suarez and Messi appeared late on.
Suarez booked the deadlock in the 85th minute with a stunning effort from long range and Messi clinched the three points with a smart finish inside the area two minutes later.
Ernesto Valverde picked his strongest available side for the game and Jordi Alba hit the post early on. Philippe Coutinho was then denied by Oblak as Barca pressed.
Atletico were dealt a huge setback, though, when Costa was shown a straight red for something he said to the referee.
The second half saw Barca push on -- despite Diego Simeone's attacking substitutions -- but they were regularly denied by Oblak.
The Slovenian saved from Suarez, Messi and Malcom as it looked like the breakthrough wouldn't arrive.
Atletico had a couple of half chances, a Griezmann free kick was easily saved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Suarez then did the damage -- as he did against Villarreal in midweek -- by producing something out of nothing to fire Barça into a late lead.
With Atletico reeling, Messi added a second 120 seconds later with a no-look finish to leave chants of 'champions' bellowing around Camp Nou and the title race all but over.
