Two goals from Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi within two minutes ensured Barça broke the resistance of 10-man Atletico Madrid on Saturday to go 11 points clear of their La Liga title rivals.
Diego Costa was sent off in the 28th minute at Camp Nou after insulting the referee but while Atletico held on for almost another hour, Suarez and Messi both struck late to seal the 2-0 win.
Victory leaves Barça almost out of sight with 7 games left to play and maintains momentum ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Manchester United in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.
‘It is three crucial points,’ coach Ernesto Valverde said. ‘We are a little closer.’
‘It gives us a big margin,’ said Suarez. ‘We’ve taken not just one, but two steps forward.’
Suarez intervened with a superb long-range strike in the 85th minute, before Messi added a second in the 86th. The pair have now scored 53 league goals between them this season while for Messi, this was a record 335th La Liga victory.
Antoine Griezmann, who decided against joining Barcelona last summer, was whistled as his name was read out before kick-off.
Zidane vague about Bale
Meanwhile, Zinedine Zidane refused to guarantee Gareth Bale’s future at Real Madrid after the Welshman struggled again in a 2-1 victory over Eibar on Saturday.
Karim Benzema scored twice at the Santiago Bernabeu as Madrid came from behind, ensuring the groans and whistles that had soured the atmosphere for much of the opening hour turned to cheers at the end.
Much of the frustration was again directed at Bale, who started after being dropped by Zidane for the defeat to Valencia on Wednesday.
Asked afterwards if Bale would be at Real Madrid next season, Zidane said: ‘We’ll see, I’m not going to tell you what’s going to happen. Gareth is a Real Madrid player, he has two years left on his contract. We will see. It is not the time to talk about this.’
Spanish La Liga results up to Sunday 7 April 2019
Played Saturday
Girona 1 Espanyol 2
Real Madrid 2 Eibar 1
Rayo Vallecano 2 Valencia 0
FC Barcelona 2 Atletico Madrid 0
Played Sunday
Alaves 1 Leganes 1
Getafe 1 Athletic Bilbao 0
Real Valladolid 0 Sevilla 2
Celta Vigo 3 Real Sociedad 1
Levante 2 Huesca 2
Real Betis/Villarreal (result to follow)
La Liga Table – Sunday 7 April 2019
(Played, Won, Drawn, Lost, Goals For/Against, Points)
Barcelona 31 22 7 2 81 31 73
Atletico Madrid 31 18 8 5 45 21 62
Real Madrid 31 19 3 9 55 37 60
Getafe 31 13 11 7 38 27 50
Sevilla 31 14 7 10 51 37 49
Valencia 31 10 16 5 33 26 46
Alaves 31 12 9 10 32 38 45
Real Sociedad 31 11 10 10 37 35 43
Athletic Bilbao 31 10 13 8 33 35 43
Real Betis 30 11 7 12 34 39 40
Leganes 31 10 10 11 31 35 40
Eibar 31 9 12 10 41 43 39
Espanyol 31 10 8 13 35 45 38
Girona 31 8 10 13 33 43 34
Levante 31 9 8 14 43 54 35
Celta Vigo 31 7 8 16 42 53 29
Valladolid 31 7 9 15 24 43 30
Villarreal 30 6 12 12 38 43 30
Rayo Vallecano 31 7 6 18 34 54 27
SD Huesca 31 5 8 18 33 54 23
