Madrid: Barcelona earned a hard-fought 1-0 win against Athletic Bilbao on Tuesday to put the pressure back on Real Madrid in the Spanish league.
Ivan Rakitic's second-half winner moved Barcelona back in front of Madrid ahead of the rival's home match against relegation-threatened Mallorca on Wednesday.
Barcelona players celebrate after Rakitic's goal Rakitic broke the deadlock in the 71st minute to leave Barcelona three points in front of Madrid, which can retake the lead with a win because it has better tiebreakers.
“We can't worry about our rival, just about us,” Barcelona coach Quique Setién said. “We needed to win, and now we wait to see what happens in their match."
Rakitic scored less than 10 minutes after coming off the bench, firing a right-foot shot into the corner after an assist by Lionel Messi.
“It was an important win in a very difficult match,” Rakitic said. “It took a while for us to get into the match. They did well by not giving us a lot of space.”
It was Rakitic’s first goal for Barcelona since March 2019.
“It took 31 rounds for me to finally score my first goal of the season," he said. “I was mad at myself that it took so long."
Messi, who turns 33 on Wednesday, again wasn’t able to score his milestone 700th career goal for club and country. He came close twice with shots that just missed the target late in the second half.
Lionel Messi in action against Athletic Bilbao Barcelona was coming off a 0-0 draw at Sevilla, a result that allowed Madrid to take over the lead for the first time since the league resumed after the pandemic break.
Athletic, which has won only one of its four matches after the break, dropped to 10th place.
