Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde has called on his team to “finish the job” in La Liga after they moved 11 points clear of Atletico Madrid on Saturday.
The Blaugrana beat Atletico 2-0 at the Camp Nou after Diego Costa was sent off in the first half.
“Three fundamental points, a really important result,”Valverde said.“We’re closer but there’s still a long way to go. You have to finish the job. It’s true it was a fundamental game and these three points could mean a lot at the end of the season. We’re happy because of the opponent we were facing, Atletico are an enormous team that have fought until the end with 10 men.”
Costa was given a red card after he angrily confronted referee Gil Manzano shortly before the half-hour mark.
Barca struggled to capitalise on their advantage ass they came up against Jan Oblak in fine form, but
Luis Suarez eventually broke the deadlock with a superb curling strike into the bottom corner on 85 minutes.
Messi made it 2-0 just a minute later with his 33rd league goal of the campaign as Barca hit on the break immediately after the restart.
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