Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid: 3 reasons why Barcelona won

Barcelona and Atletico Madrid locked horns at the Camp Nou on Matchday 31 of LaLiga. In a potential title decider, Barcelona came with an 8 point lead in hand ahead of second-placed Atletico Madrid. Ernesto Valverde started with his strongest available 11 with Sergi Roberto on the right-back spot and Philippe Coutinho on the left-wing. Atleti started in a 4-4-2 with Griezmann and Costa up front.

The tie was in a deadlock until the 85th minute when Luis Suarez breathed life in the game. A minute later Lionel Messi netted his 33rd LaLiga goal this season to make the score 2-0.

With the loss, Atleti has to climb an 11 point deficit with only 7 games to go. Diego Simeone is yet to beat Barcelona in the league. The Blaugrana will next face Manchester United mid-week in the Champions League, with the league almost wrapped up.

Here are 3 reasons why the Blaugrana won against the Rojiblancos.

#3 Diego Costa's early sending off

Diego Costa lost control of his emotions and reportedly abused the referee's mother resulting in a straight red card

The game started off on a really high tempo. Both teams were going at their opponent's goals with the intent to score early. It was an end to end stuff and great to watch from a neutral perspective. Barcelona threatened Atleti early with Alba hitting the post and Coutinho failing to finish 1v1 against Oblak.

Then came the plot twist. Diego Costa in a jostle with Arthur clearly elbowed the midfielder and the referee pulled him up for the challenge. At first, Gil Manzano was going for a yellow card which was the obvious choice but then he turned to his other pocket and showed Costa a straight red. The Atleti players surrounded the referee in a heated war of words and Atleti should consider themselves lucky that no other player was sent off.

Till that point, Atleti had their plans set and were at least trying to threaten the Barcelona rear guard. But surprisingly, the 10 men didn't hold back and continued to show resilience whenever they needed to.

Diego Costa clearly betrayed his team in a high tension game. Without Costa, Atleti were a man down and had to run around more and had fewer men to target up front. They were stretched across the pitch by Barcelona and they were completely exhausted as well.

If Costa was present on the pitch things could have been much different but it is what it is now.

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#2 Defensive solidity from the back four of Barcelona

Griezmann had enough opportunities to hit Barcelona on the counter but Lenglet was aware of the danger

Even though Costa was sent off early, Atleti continued to press Barcelona when they had the chance and had several opportunities on the counter. Barcelona had to be vigilant in defence to stop Atleti from sneaking opportunities. Atleti had a lot of counter-attacking chances which were blocked before they even started.

Simeone's men also had opportunities from set pieces which were dealt with well by Barcelona. Both Lenglet and Pique got a yellow card too. Lenglet got it for a professional foul on Thomas Partey to stop him from getting away on the counter. Despite being high on the pitch, both Alba and Sergi Roberto tracked back well and didn't let even one cross go into the box.

We have seen a lot of defensive blunders from Barcelona this season but yesterday was not one of the days. The defence held strong against a frustrating Atleti attack which had all the firepower in the front with Morata and Correa being substituted to help Griezmann. This allowed Barcelona to capitalize late in the day and seal the deal.

#1 Individual brilliance from Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi

Messi scored his quintessential solo goal and this time it was Godin and Gimenez who were floored by the Argentine.

As a team, Barcelona was not better than the 10-man Atleti team. Atleti had a better gameplan, better attitude, better body-language, everything. The fatigue took its toll on Atleti's players as Simeone threw caution to the wind playing an auxiliary left and right-back and making attacking substitutions.

Barcelona couldn't penetrate the defence of Atleti even once in the night apart from the shot off the post from Alba, and the 1v1 for Coutinho. Lionel Messi had five shots on target all of which were gobbled up by the giant Jan Oblak.

But something had to give on the night and Luis Suarez did. Receiving the ball from Alba in the space in front of the box, Suarez dribbled Partey and released a bullet strike from the almost 20 yards out. He curled the ball into the bottom corner, past the full stretch of a 6ft tall Jan Oblak, past the man who was unbeatable on the night.

A minute later, Ivan Rakitic intercepted the ball and played Lionel Messi in near the halfway line. The diminutive Argentine dribbled quickly into the box, sent Jose Gimenez to the floor while he tried to tackle, then went across the face of the goal and sent Diego Godin to the floor, and then froze Oblak where he and passed the ball into the net.

It happened against Villarreal mid-week and it happened against Atleti yesterday. This team has the players who could get the win in the direst of circumstances.