(Football news) Barcelona defeated Atletico Madrid 1-0 at the Wanda Metropolitano. The win put the Blaugrana on top of the table, 3 points above Real Madrid while Atleti dropped down to the 5th spot. Barcelona were without the suspended Jordi Alba and Robert Lewandowski while Mario Hermoso was suspended for Atletico Madrid. Ansu Fati started as a number 9 for Barcelona which was surprising considering that Xavi had the option of Ferran Torres and Memphis Depay. Sergio Busquets also started despite playing 120 minutes midweek as did Jules Kounde. Despite all the noise about Joao Felix’s future, he started up front with Antoine Griezmann.

Barcelona as expected were on the front foot right from the first whistle. They took the lead in the 22nd minute via Ousmane Dembele who was assisted by Gavi. The goal was created by an incredible solo run by Pedri who left the Atletico Madrid midfield for dead before finding Gavi who then set up Dembele. After conceding, Atletico stepped up their attacking game and created a couple of decent chances but none of them caused Barcelona too much trouble. In the 2nd half the hosts were even more dangerous as they upped their link up play. The introduction of Geoffrey Kondogbia and Alvaro Morata had a positive impact straight away.

The final minutes of the game were absolutely chaotic as the referee handed 4 yellow cards. Stefan Savic and Ferran Torres engaged in some wrestling off the ball and the referee immediately showed a straight red card to both the players. In injury time Antoine Griezmann had an incredible chance to score the equalizer but the attempt was cleared off the line by Ronald Araujo. Barcelona will now fly to Saudi Arabia for the Spanish Super Cup as league leaders. The Catalan club will take on Real Betis in the semi final while Real Madrid will face Valencia.

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