Ferran Torres gets leaders Barcelona back on track with win over Atletico Madrid
The result puts Xavi’s men 11 points clear of second-placed Real Madrid.
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Your support makes all the difference.Barcelona returned to winning ways as Ferran Torres’ first-half effort secured the LaLiga leaders a 1-0 home victory over Atletico Madrid.
After a 4-0 loss to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey and 0-0 league draws with Girona and Getafe, Barca were almost behind in the opening minute when their former player Antoine Griezmann hit the bar.
Torres then netted what proved to be the winner in the 44th minute, collecting the ball from Raphinha and drilling it past Jan Oblak from the edge of the box.
The result puts Xavi’s men 11 points clear of second-placed Real Madrid with eight more games to go, while Atletico remain third.
Sevilla followed up their Europa League triumph against Manchester United with a dramatic 2-1 home win over Villarreal, Youssef En-Nesyri securing the victory in stoppage time after Rafa Mir’s opener for the hosts had been cancelled out by Pau Torres.
Relegation-threatened Valencia are level on points with 17th-placed Almeria after winning 2-0 at bottom side Elche, while Mallorca came from behind to beat Getafe 3-1 at home, with Lee Kang-in scoring twice.
Substitute Giacomo Raspadori scored a stoppage-time winner as Napoli closed in on the Serie A title with a 1-0 win at Juventus, putting the gap to second-placed Lazio at 17 points with seven games to go.
Juventus are third, two points behind Lazio, having earlier this week had an appeal against their 15-point deduction accepted.
Sixth-placed Inter Milan halted their five-match winless run in the league with a 3-0 win at Empoli featuring two goals from Romelu Lukaku, and there was also a brace for Rafael Leao as fifth-placed AC Milan won 2-0 at home against Lecce.
Monza came back from 2-0 down to beat Fiorentina 3-2 at home, and Udinese defeated Cremonese 3-0.
In the Bundesliga, Sheraldo Becker’s goal secured third-placed Union Berlin a 1-0 win at Borussia Monchengladbach.
RB Leipzig fell to fifth as they had Dominik Szoboszlai sent off as they lost 2-0 at Bayer Leverkusen, overtaken in the table by Freiburg who thrashed struggling Schalke 4-0, with Michael Gregoritsch scoring twice.
In Ligue 1, Marseille rose to second after winning 2-1 at Lyon courtesy of a stoppage-time Malo Gusto own-goal.
Montpellier beat Rennes 1-0 at home despite being reduced to 10 men early in the second half by Teji Savanier’s red card.
Habib Diallo got both goals as Strasbourg won 2-0 at Reims and moved out of the relegation zone and up to 15th. They leapfrogged Nantes and Brest, with the three sides separated by goal difference – Nantes drew 2-2 at home against 18th-placed Troyes, with stoppage-time goals for both teams, and Brest 0-0 at second-bottom Ajaccio.
Elsewhere, there were wins for Clermont at Nice (2-1) and Toulouse at Lorient (1-0).