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Barca dig deep to beat Atletico and boost coach Luis Enrique

Xinhua, January 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

FC Barcelona coach Luis Enrique lives to fight another day after his side produced a display full of passion and skill to defeat Atletico Madrid 3-1 in the Camp Nou stadium on Sunday night.

Barca went into the game without having beaten Atletico in their last six meetings and with talk of crisis at the club after a difficult week, which had led some to believe that a defeat would lead to Luis Enrique getting the sack in the case of a defeat.

Without Xabi Hernandez through injury the Barca coach put perhaps his strongest side on the pitch with Leo Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez in attack and with Ivan Rakitic, Busquets and Andres Iniesta in midfield. Meanwhile Fernando Torres was on the bench for Atletico as Diego Simeone' s side.

In front of the biggest crowd of the season, Barca produced one of their best performances of the campaign against a team they have struggled to break down of late.

Neymar opened the scoring in the 12th minute after a move involving Suarez and Messi allowed him to score from close range and from that moment Barca took control of the game with Neymar heading the best chance wide.

There was controversy when Barca doubled their lead through Suarez after a pass from Messi, as Messi looked to have helped control the ball with his upper arm at the start of the move, although referee Undiano Mallenco failed to see the action which should have ruled out the goal.

Messi was involved in controversy again in the second half as his challenge on Atletico right back, Jesus Games was ruled to be a foul by the referee and Mario Mandzukic scored from the penalty spot. It was the first penalty Messi has committed in his career and it gave Atletico a lifeline as the last 33 minutes became an end to end affair.

Some of the challenges from the Atletico defense were extremely fierce and Simeone' s side were fortunate to end the game with 11 players as both Godin and Gimenez committed a series of hard fouls before Messi decided the game three minutes from time as he scored from a loose ball in the area.

The result keeps Barca second and perhaps more than the result Luis Enrique will be happy with the display from his players who showed they are willing to dig deep for their coach, something that had not been clear up to now. Endi