Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid in feisty encounter to move clear in Spain

Atletico Madrid and Barcelona may have a common enemy, Real Madrid, as far as the La Liga is concerned but nevertheless their encounters have emerged as marquee fixtures of the last couple of seasons.

Yet, despite their numerical disadvantage, Atletico still started the second period the better.

A day earlier, Atletico and Real had their bans on signing new players for the next two transfer windows suspended pending the outcome of appeals to Federation Internationale de Football Association, the clubs said in separate statements. Barcelona has an easier schedule and can afford to rest some of its key players in the games played on the road against mediocre teams.

On the other side we have Atletico Madrid.

FC Barcelona’s Luis Suarez, down, reacts after scoring with his teammates against Atletico Madrid during a Spanish La Liga soccer match at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016. The attacking midfielder followed up an electric run when moments later he crossed for Griezmann, only for Barcelona goalie Claudio Bravo to make a superb save with his foot to keep out his point-blank volley. “The first red card was a setback, but we responded well to the second one”, Saul told reporters.

Barcelona now lead the league in overall points, with Atletico trailing by three and Real Madrid in third, down by seven points.

“I’m proud of the players”.

The European champions had been outplayed by Malaga and Athletic Bilbao in the first-half of their previous two games before reacting after the break, but they clicked into gear in the final 15 minutes of the first-half to turn the game on its head.

Barcelona will face Atletico Madrid looking to win its eighth game in a row in all competitions.

The Catalan giants defeated Atletico 2-1 at the Camp Nou to move three points clear of their title rivals in the league table.

The former Chelsea left-back’s straight red card came for a high tackle on Messi just before half-time, while Godin earned a second yellow for a wild lunge on his Uruguay team-mate Suarez shortly after the hour mark.

Partey came on to replace Augusto Fernandez who picked up an injury and got stretchered off in the 76 minutes. Diego Simeone’s men were ousted from Copa del Rey earlier this week, and a poor performance today would send the team trending downward heading into Champions League play next month.