Dembele earns Barca La Liga advantage

Playing without Robert Lewandowski wasn't so bad for Barcelona after all.

Barcelona overcame the absence of its top striker to win 1-0 at Atletico Madrid and open a three-point lead over rival Real Madrid in the Spanish league on Sunday.

Madrid had lost 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday for its second league loss of the season. Atletico dropped to fifth place, seeing its gap to the lead reach 14 points.

"It's a win, but it's not just three points. It gives us morale and confidence for what's left of the league," Xavi told reporters.

"We are capable of winning at places as tough as this, suffering, being a family.

"We knew how to suffer and we take three golden points. It's a real statement that we are candidates to win this league."

Ousmane Dembele scored in the first half and Barcelona held on for its first league win of the year. Dembele scored with a low shot from close range after a setup by Gavi Paez in the 22nd minute.

"We knew it was going to be tough to win here, but after Madrid lost points against Villarreal we had to take advantage of the opportunity," Barcelona captain Sergio Busquets said. "We have to keep adding points at the top."

Barcelona was without Lewandowski, the league's leading scorer with 13 goals, because the Poland striker began serving a three-game suspension from before the World Cup break. He had faced Espanyol late last year after the suspension was temporarily lifted, but it got reinstated this week to keep him from playing.

Forward Antoine Griezmann had a couple of good opportunities to equalize for Atletico but couldn't capitalize on them at the Metropolitano stadium in the Spanish capital. His best came in stoppage time with a shot that Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo cleared just in front of the goal line.

"We played well for most of the match," Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak said. "We created chances but we were a bit unlucky. We could have scored a few times, but the ball just didn't go in.

"We started badly, the first 25 minutes we had little confidence, and later we woke up, but at 1-0 down it's already harder."

Defeat means Atletico languish in fifth, 14 points behind leader Barcelona.

Agencies