Barcelona's Joao Felix scored in the first half to secure a hard-fought 1-0 home win against his valiant parent club Atletico Madrid in a compelling LaLiga clash on Sunday.
The Portuguese, on loan at Barca, netted with a fine finish over goalkeeper Jan Oblak from a counter-attack in the 28th minute and the hosts held on against Diego Simeone's side.
Joao Felix scored against his parent club as Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 to leapfrog them in the La Liga table and perhaps reignite a title charge.
Felix was in the thick of it all evening and scored the game's only goal with a delicate chip, seconds after being stronger than the Atletico defender in a 50-50 tackle to set up the chance.
although Atleti made things uncomfortable at times, the Blaugrana looked mostly composed in key areas. Their midfield trio — Ilkay Gundogan, Pedri and Frenkie de Jong — simply played through the Rojiblancos', and ensured that Barca never really lost their control of the game.
By the 76th minute, Felix was exhausted, grabbing the back of his hamstring, and half-limping off the pitch. For the first time since he arrived late in the transfer window, Barca fans rose to their feet to applaud what had been a special showing.
Barcelona goalkeeper Iñaki Peña, replacing the injured Marc-André ter Stegen, made a few good saves -- and one stellar one on a Memphis Depay free kick -- toward the end to secure Barcelona's third win in four league matches.
Barcelona was coming off a 1-1 draw at Rayo Vallecano before beating Porto 2-1 to secure their return to the knockout stage of the Champions League for the first time after two consecutive group-stage eliminations.
In the 85th minute, Lewandowski spurned a glorious opportunity to put the game to bed. After drifting past Azpilicueta, with just the goalkeeper to beat from seven yards out, the Polish striker curled embarrassingly wide of the post.
Pena once again came up trumps for Barca in the 92nd minute to ensure that his team came away with all three points by getting a strong hand to a powerful effort from substitute Angel Correa
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