Barcelona took a giant step towards retaining the La Liga title with a 2-1 victory over nine-man Atletico Madrid in a crunch top of the table clash Saturday.
The two teams had gone into the match level on points, but with Barcelona having played a game less, and the importance of the fixture was underlined by the 94,990 best attendance of the season in the Nou Camp.
Victory took the Catalan giants three points clear and seven ahead of third-placed Real Madrid, which hosts Espanyol Sunday.
Diego Simeone's Atletico made the stronger start and took a deserved early lead through Koke, but two goals in eight minutes from the half hour mark, with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez on target, turned the match Barca's way.
Atletico's hopes of a comeback took a nosedive when Filipe Luis was sent off just before the break for an ugly lunge on Messi.
But 25 minutes from time, Diego Godin dived in on Suarez and was giving his marching orders for a second yellow card.
Former Atletico man Arda Turan nearly added a third and the capital side suffered a further blow before the end as Augusto Fernandez was stretchered off with a knee injury.
Home coach Luis Enrique admitted his team had made hard work of its victory, even against nine men.
"It was difficult to get into the game, but it has served to wake us up," he said. Simeone said he was "proud" of his team and picked out Suarez, the "complete footballer" as the man who made the difference for Barcelona.
"I have nothing to reproach them for," said the Argentine in talking about the dismissed Luis and Godin.