Barcelona restored their four-point lead at the top of La Liga with a tense victory over Celta Vigo, who ended with 10 men in bizarre circumstances.
It took 73 minutes for the breakthrough – Jeremy Mathieu scoring the only goal with a back-post diving header from Xavi’s free-kick.
Celta had Fabian Orellana sent off for throwing some grass at Sergio Busquets as he was getting ready to take a free-kick.
Lionel Messi chipped over late on.
Despite the significance of the result, the game might be better remembered for Orellana’s dismissal with two minutes left.
The Chilean, frustrated with how long Busquets was spending to take his free-kick, picked a lump of grass off the ground and threw it in the face of the Spain international, who held his face and started to go down.
Real Madrid had closed the gap with a 9-1 demolition of Granada in the early kick-off, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring five goals for the first time in his career.
Barcelona boss Luis Enrique had a tough test against his former club
But Barcelona faced a much more well-organised side in mid-table Celta Vigo, with Barca boss Luis Enrique returning to the club for the first time since leaving them last summer.
Celta created plenty of chances, with Joaquin Larrivey blazing over a simple chance from eight yards.
Neymar had a goal marginally ruled out for offside early in the second half and substitute Xavi fired a shot wide before setting up Mathieu for the decisive moment.
It was a second consecutive La Liga goal for the French defender, following his opener in the 2-1 win over Real Madrid, after he had failed to score in his first 19 league games since his summer move from Valencia.
Celta put late pressure on Barcelona after Orellana’s farcical red card but they were unable to find a way through.
Fabian Orellana was shown a red card for throwing grass at Sergio Busquets in the 88th minute
Source: BBC