Barcelona needed two late goals to beat 10-man Atletico Madrid 2-0 at the Camp Nou on Saturday, to go 11 points clear of them in La Liga with seven matches remaining.
Atletico's Diego Costa was sent off after 28 minutes after he angrily confronted referee Gil Manzano.
Jordi Alba hit the post early on with the Blaugrana's best chance of the first half after a world-class ball over the top of the defence from Lionel Messi.
After the break, Jan Oblak made a string of saves to deny Messi, Luis Suarez and Malcom until the former pair fired the Catalan giants to victory with two goals in the space of a minute.