Watch: Atletico Madrid widen lead at prime, Barcelona win with out Messi

Atletico Madrid hasn’t flinched in its quest to win the Spanish league title for the primary time since 2014.
Coming from behind for a second straight time, Atletico defeated Valencia 3-1 on Sunday to strengthen its maintain on the league lead coming into the second half of the season.
Barcelona earlier picked up its second win in a row with out the suspended Lionel Messi, defeating Elche 2-0 to regain third place.
Joao Felix, Luis Suarez and Angel Correa scored to present Atletico its seventh straight league win and a seven-point hole to second-place Real Madrid with a recreation in hand. Diego Simeone’s group is 10 factors forward of Barcelona.
Atletico had additionally wanted to rally to win its earlier league match, in opposition to Eibar.
“We started behind again but this team always fights until the end and thankfully we ended with the victory,” Felix stated. “We can’t get too caught up with the lead that we have now. We have to stayed focused match after match.”

Valencia opened the scoring with a wonderful curling long-range shot by Uros Racic within the eleventh minute, however Felix equalized off a nook kick within the twenty third and Suarez put the hosts forward with a well-placed low shot into the far nook within the 54th from a Felix move. Correa sealed the victory by finishing a cross from Marcos Llorente within the 72nd.
Suarez, who netted a late winner in opposition to Eibar final weekend, is now one of many league’s main scorers with 12 objectives, together with Sevilla’s Youssef En-Nesyri.
Valencia, which was unbeaten in 5 matches in all competitions, stayed in 14th place. It has the identical 20 factors as Alaves, the primary group contained in the relegation zone after 20 matches.
Valencia defender Mouctar Diakhaby had to get replaced early within the second half due to an obvious muscle damage.
BARCELONA ON A ROLL
Frenkie de Jong scored within the thirty ninth and arrange Riqui Puig’s 89th-minute objective to present Barcelona its fourth league win in a row as Messi served the second of his two-game suspension for hitting an opponent.
The Catalan membership moved a degree in entrance of Sevilla, which on Saturday beat Cadiz 3-0.
It was the primary time Barcelona gained 4 consecutive league matches this season, with all 4 victories coming in away matches. It hasn’t misplaced in 9 straight league video games.
“We’ve improved since the year started,” De Jong stated. “We’ve only played away games in the league and won all of them. We are doing better.”

De Jong scored into the open internet after the Elche protection failed to totally clear a cross from Martin Braithwaite to Antoine Griezmann inside the realm. The Dutch midfielder made a well-placed cross for Puig’s late header for his first-ever Spanish league objective.
Marc-Andre Ter Stegen made a vital foot-save to maintain Barcelona forward within the 56th after Elche ahead Emiliano Rigoni entered the realm in a one-on-one state of affairs. The breakaway for the hosts was prompted after a blunder by Barcelona defender Oscar Mingueza, who gave the ball away close to midfield.
“It’s one of those plays that can make the difference in the match,” Elche defender Gonzalo Verdu stated. “The goalkeeper made a tremendous save. A goal there could have changed the match.”
Barcelona was coming off a 2-0 win over third-division membership Cornella within the spherical of 32 of the Copa del Rey on Thursday, when Messi served the primary match of his suspension for hitting an opponent within the group’s 3-2 loss to Athletic Bilbao within the Spanish Super Cup closing on Jan. 17.
Elche, winless in its final 13 league video games, was second-to-last within the 20-team standings.
CELTA HELD
Celta Vigo was held 1-1 in opposition to Eibar to increase its winless streak to 5 matches in all competitions. It had misplaced 4 straight, together with in opposition to third-division membership Ibiza within the second spherical of the Copa del Rey. Its final league win was in December.
Celta sits in ninth-place, whereas Eibar stayed fifteenth, not removed from the relegation zone.

OSASUNA WINS
Osasuna snapped its personal 13-game winless streak with a 3-1 victory over Granada.
Ante Budimir scored a pair of first-half objectives for the hosts, who hadn’t gained within the league since October.
The win moved Osasuna out of the relegation zone, whereas Granada stayed in seventh place.