{"id":46359,"date":"2026-04-05T00:04:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=46359"},"modified":"2026-04-05T00:04:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:04:42","slug":"barcelona-beat-10-man-atletico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=46359","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona beat 10-man Atletico"},"content":{"rendered":"
Robert Lewandowski shouldered home a dramatic late winner for Barcelona as they edged Atletico Madrid 2-1 to move seven points clear at the top of La Liga after Real Madrid slipped up.
\nSecond-placed Real were beaten 2-1 at Mallorca earlier on Saturday, and Barca capitalised at the Metropolitano stadium to take a big step towards defending the league title.
\nMarcus Rashford pulled Barca level after Giuliano Simeone opened the scoring for the hosts in the first half.
\nAtletico midfielder Nico Gonzalez was sent off just before the break, and his team dug deep with 10 men to try and avoid defeat, which they almost managed.
\nVeteran Polish striker Lewandowski had other ideas and used his shoulder to deflect home a rebound from point-blank range after 87 minutes.
\nWith little left to play for in La Liga, Atletico coach Diego Simeone rotated heavily, with Wednesday\u2019s visit to Camp Nou in mind.
\nHis Barca counterpart, Hansi Flick, opted for Dani Olmo as a false nine to rest Lewandowski, while starting Rashford in place of the injured Raphinha on the left wing.
\nThe England international, on loan from Manchester United, tested Juan Musso early on with a free-kick, which the goalkeeper fielded comfortably.
\nAt the other end, Antoine Griezmann, playing for Atletico for the first time since announcing his departure at the end of the season to MLS side Orlando City, was profligate.
\nThe forward skipped into the box and cleverly nutmegged Gerard Martin, but his shot was too close to Barca stopper Joan Garcia to trouble the new Spain international.
\nFermin Lopez was similarly wasteful at the other end, unable to find Rashford, who had a clear sight of goal, and prodding wide himself when Lamine Yamal sent him scuttling through with a sensational pass.
\nBarca\u2019s 18-year-old star Yamal hit the post with a dinked effort after Lopez laid the ball off to him as the game flowed from end to end.
\nAtletico took the lead in the 39th minute through Giuliano Simeone, the coach\u2019s son, bursting in behind Barca\u2019s high defensive line onto Clement Lenglet\u2019s pass and slamming past Garcia.
\nThe visitors pulled level just three minutes later, Rashford exchanging passes with Olmo and drilling past Musso on only his third league start since January.
\nAtletico were reduced to 10 men just before half-time, when Gonzalez scythed down Yamal on the edge of the box as he ran towards goal.
\nBarcelona defender Martin was dismissed early in the second half as he thumped the ball away, but then clattered Thiago Almada with a high foot. However, after a VAR review, the red card was revoked, much to Atletico\u2019s fury.
\nBarca substitute Ferran Torres, without a goal since January, was twice thwarted by Musso as the visitors probed for a winner but struggled to make their numerical advantage count.
\nEventually, their winner came when Joao Cancelo cut his way into the penalty area, and his cross-shot was pushed out by Musso, only for wily striker Lewandowski to knock it home with his shoulder.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Lewandowski shouldered home a dramatic late winner for Barcelona as they edged Atletico Madrid 2-1 to move seven points clear at the top of La Liga after Real Madrid slipped up. Second-placed Real were beaten 2-1 at Mallorca earlier on Saturday, and Barca capitalised at the Metropolitano stadium to take a big step towards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}