Updated at 23.37
JOAO FELIX’S superb dinked finish earned Barcelona a vital 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid on Sunday in the La Liga title race.
The Portuguese forward, on loan at Barca from Atletico, made no secret of his pleasure to escape the Spanish capital this summer and made his parent club pay at the Olympic Stadium.
Felix was criticised by some Atletico players ahead of the game and Barca coach Xavi Hernandez called on him to use those words as inspiration, which he duly did.
The forward’s goal allowed Barca to reclaim third place from Atletico, now trailing leaders Real Madrid and second place Girona by four points.
Atletico have not won away against the champions in La Liga since 2006, a run now stretching to 18 matches, but arrived thinking this could be the time to snap that streak.
Since crumbling to a defeat in the Clasico by Real Madrid at the end of October, Barcelona have struggled for form and confidence.
They scraped tight wins against Real Sociedad and Alaves despite being outplayed, lost at Shakhtar Donetsk in Europe and then drew with Rayo Vallecano.
Xavi said Barca were back on track with their win over Porto earlier this week to reach the Champions League last 16 and his words were justified by a dominant first-half display.
Barcelona took the game by the scruff of the neck from the start, with Raphinha bursting forward and dragging a shot wide, while Mario Hermoso blocked Robert Lewandowski’s effort after Felix pressed well to steal.
The Portuguese forward broke the deadlock after 28 minutes, taking a brilliant touch to ride Nahuel Molina’s challenge and then dinking the ball over Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak.
Felix celebrated with arms aloft, standing in front of the angry visiting supporters, while Rojiblancos coach Diego Simeone appeared disgruntled as he flashed up on the big screens.
The 24-year-old forward, a club record signing at €126 million in 2019, never settled in the capital and did not click with Simeone’s management and playing style.
- Payback -
Perhaps not coincidentally, Axel Witsel was soon booked for hacking Felix to the ground shortly after. Koke was also cautioned for a cynical challenge on the rampaging Raphinha.
Felix came close to a second with a prodded effort from Ilkay Gundogan’s cut-back, but this time Oblak denied him.
The forward called for a penalty as Hermoso stepped on his foot after the shot but his appeals were dismissed.
Gundogan impressed in midfield alongside fit-again duo Pedri and Frenkie de Jong, as Barcelona controlled the game.
Raphinha clipped the post at the start of the second half to get Barcelona fans out of their seats.
Despite their high-calibre opponents, the attendance fell short of 35,000 and was the club’s poorest this season, with supporters perhaps chastened by the colder winter evenings and the late kick-off.
While Felix was on target against his former side, Atletico talisman Antoine Griezmann worked hard but could not find the net against his old employers — he has not netted in 14 games against Barca for Atletico.
Memphis Depay, another ex-Barcelona player, came closest for Atletico with a free-kick tipped over by Inaki Pena, between the sticks for the hosts in place of the hurt Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Lewandowski should have wrapped up Barcelona’s victory but pulled an effort wide when running in on goal.
The veteran striker has only three goals in his last 10 games for Barca across all competitions, but on this occasion, his profligacy did not cost Xavi’s side.
Pena denied Angel Correa in stoppage time to ensure Atletico, fourth, trail Barca by three points and the top two by seven.
Meanwhile, Inter Milan sent a warning to the rest of Serie A with Sunday’s convincing 3-0 win at Napoli which re-established their two-point lead at the summit and left the champions’ title defence on its last legs.
Beautifully taken goals from Hakan Calhanoglu, Nicolo Barella and Marcus Thuram pushed Inter back above closest challengers Juventus, who briefly held top spot after beating Monza on Friday.
Sunday’s thumping was a show of force from Inter who illustrated why they are favourites to win a 20th league title, still unbeaten away from home in all competitions after claiming a huge win at a ground where they have a dreadful record.
“It was a show of strength, of team spirit,” said Inter coach Simone Inzaghi.
“Winning like this in Naples is satisfying, but we’re only 14 games in and there is a very long way to go.”
Napoli are now 11 points off the pace and travel to Juve next weekend in a match which could end any realistic hope of the champions retaining the Scudetto before the calendar year is out.
To add insult to injury Napoli have dropped out of the top four, replaced by Roma who won 2-1 at Sassuolo earlier and sit in the last Champions League spot on goal difference.
- Napoli recriminations -
Returning Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri refused to speak after the match, sporting director Mauro Meluso expressing anger at referee Davide Massa for not stopping play for a foul before Inter’s opener and not giving a penalty for what he believed was a clear foul on Victor Osimhen while the home side trailed by a single goal.
“I don’t want to create an excuse for our team, who obviously still need to work on a few things, but we didn’t deserve that humiliation today,” said Meluso.
Simone Inzaghi’s side have won 11 of their 14 league matches so far this season and once Hakan Calhanoglu thrashed in the opener on the stroke of half-time they expertly dealt with a hyped-up Napoli.
Hosts Napoli were playing their first home fixture under Mazzarri, whose team are stuck on a paltry seven points from as many matches at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Barella doubled Inter’s lead just after the hour mark with his first goal of the season shortly after Yann Sommer pulled off a brilliant save to deny Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, one of three superb stops from the Swiss.
Italy’s Barella burst unopposed from midfield and after collecting Lautaro Martinez’s low pass skipped past Leo Ostigard and Natan before confidently finishing past Alex Meret.
And with five minutes remaining Thuram — who earlier had a goal ruled out for a microscopic offside — made absolutely sure of the points, tapping home his fifth league goal of a brilliant first season at Inter from substitute Juan Cuadrado’s low cross.
- Roma comeback -
Paulo Dybala’s 76th-minute penalty and a wildly deflected strike from Rasmus Kristensen shortly afterwards earned Roma a win from their scrappy match with 10-man Sassuolo, who opened the scoring through Matheus Henrique.
The win at the Mapei Stadium came as coach Jose Mourinho is reportedly being investigated by the Italian Football Federation for saying that referee Matteo Marcenaro didn’t “have the emotional stability to referee at this level” ahead of the match.
The Portuguese blasted Marcenaro, 31, in a pre-match outburst on Saturday which the country’s refereeing association said “could lead to violence” against officials.
And despite having excellent Italian Mourinho insisted on only speaking in Portuguese in his post-match interview with DAZN.
“I am speaking Portuguese because my Italian is not good enough to explain certain concepts,” claimed Mourinho.
“When I spoke about emotional stability, I was talking about a quality that is necessary in both life and football in order to perform at the highest level.”
Fiorentina are a point behind Roma and Napoli in sixth thanks to a simple 3-0 win over the division’s bottom team Salernitana, while Bologna are a further point and place back following their 1-1 draw at Lecce.
