Brazilian winger Raphinha’s first-half header was enough to give Barcelona a narrow win over struggling Valencia at Camp Nou where the home side were reduced to 10 men for the last half hour of the match in La Liga on Sunday.
Raphinha nodded a header over the goalkeeper after a brilliant long pass by midfielder Sergio Busquets who spotted the Brazilian winger ghosting behind the defence into the box in the 15th minute.
Barca could have extended their lead in the 55th minute when Ferran Torres shot a penalty wide of the goal. Five minutes after that, however, they lost defender Ronald Araujo who received a straight red card for a last-man foul on Hugo Duro.
Barca top La Liga on 62 points. Valencia, who have won only one of their last 10 league matches, have 23 points.
On Saturday, Dutch striker Memphis Depay shone in his first start for Atletico Madrid as he scored twice in a 6-1 thrashing of Sevilla, who were reduced to 10 men late on.
Substitute Alvaro Morata also bagged a brace as Atletico seized the opportunity to go third after Real Sociedad drew at home 0-0 against lowly Cadiz on Friday, leapfrogging the Basque side in the standings and climbing to 45 points. Sociedad are now fourth on 44 points.
Atletico delivered arguably their best showing of the season on a night they were celebrating Diego Simeone’s 613th game as their coach, surpassing club legend Luis Aragones (612) to become the manager with more games with the same team in the history of Spanish football.
Winning streak halted
Second-half goals from forward Nicolas Gonzalez and striker Luka Jovic earned Fiorentina a 2-1 home win over AC Milan in Serie A on Saturday, breaking the reigning champions’ winning streak of four games.
Milan, who travel to Tottenham Hotspur for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash on Wednesday, had not previously lost a game in all competitions since their 1-0 defeat at Inter Milan on February 5.
Fiorentina, who on Monday ended their near two-month wait for a Serie A win with a 3-0 victory at Hellas Verona, are 12th on 31 points.
Bayern prevail
Bayern Munich snatched a 2-1 victory at VfB Stuttgart on Saturday courtesy of a fine Matthijs de Ligt performance that put them back into top spot in the Bundesliga.
The Dutch defender drilled in their opening goal in the 39th minute after also denying Stuttgart the lead two minutes earlier when he cleared the ball off the goal line.
Bayern are on 49 points, ahead on goal difference of Borussia Dortmund.
Union Berlin are in third place on 44 following their goalless draw against Cologne.
