Barcelona put their poor recent record at the Vicente Calderon
behind them to end Atletico Madrid's 100% start to the Primera Division
season - but there was an injury scare for Lionel Messi.
Barca had lost their three previous league visits to Atletico's
home 2-1, 4-3 and 4-2 but they deservedly earned all three points
on this occasion thanks to first-half goals from Messi and Gerard
Pique.
Atletico had managed to equalise through Raul Garcia but they can
have few complaints about the result and finished the game with
10 men when defender Tomas Ujfalusi was sent off late on following
a challenge on Messi.
Messi was carried off on a stretcher after that to be replaced
by Bojan Krkic and Barca will be keeping their fingers crossed the
reigning FIFA World Player of the Year has not suffered a serious
injury.
The result means Atletico, having started the season superbly with
a UEFA Super Cup win over Inter Milan and back-to-back league victories,
have now lost twice in four days following Thursday's Europa League
defeat against Aris.
For Barca though it was another impressive performance following
their 5-1 midweek Champions League mauling of Panathinaikos, and
gets them back on track in La Liga after their shock 2-0 home defeat
to Hercules last time weekend.
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