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Joao Felix helps Barcelona down Atletico

Joao Felix came back to haunt his parent club as FC Barcelona secured a 1-0 win Atletico Madrid in LaLiga action on Sunday evening.

Andreas Christensen returned for the Catalans and replaced Inigo Martinez, whilst Atletico showed no changes from the win over Feyenoord in the UEFA Champions League group stages.

Barca were forced to make a goal-line clearance on five minutes when Ronald Araujo raced down to thwart a back-heeled effort from Marcos Llorente.

The Blaugrana shrugged off the nervous opening to present their first chance where Lewandowski volleyed wide from a layoff by Jules Kounde with a good build-up by Raphinha.

As the chances came on both ends around the half-hour mark, Barca were in front when Raphinha made a decoy run and released Felix to chip over Jan Oblak at the near post.

Barcelona carved out another chance on the stroke of halftime from a towering header by Lewandowski following Joao Cancelo's cross, but it sailed over the crossbar.

The visitors made a trio of changes after the break in Angel Correa for Rodrigo Riquelme before Samuel Lino replaced Juan Gimenez and Cesar Azpilicueta filled for Nahuel Molina.

Lino didn't take long to get stuck in and produced a timeous block to prevent Cancelo and Felix combining to layoff a chance to Lewandowski in the area.

Raphinha came close to giving the host a second with a powerful drive outside the area after combining with Pedri, whose low strike hit the post.

The crossbar denied Atletico too in the final few minutes this from a pin-point free-kick by Memphis Depay which forced Inigo Pena to sharp reflexes.

Barcelona were under intense amount of pressure as the clash began to wind down, but managed to hold on and claimed to win to close the gap on the leaders Real Madrid.

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