Barcelona strengthened their hold on the La Liga first place after defeating Atletico Madrid by two goals to none. The Catalans were the better team, helped in part by Diego Costa’s first half red card, but couldn’t break the deadlock until late in the game when Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi scored in consecutive minutes.
Both managers fielded their best available starting lineups, though both had some question marks in attacks. Diego Simeone due to fitness issues of Diego Costa and Alvaro Morata, while the recent performances of Malcom brought on discussions of Philippe Coutinho returning to the bench, but the latter would start alongside Suarez and Messi.