Barcelona took a major step towards retaining their La Liga crown with a 2-0 victory over Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou on Saturday night.Ernesto Valverde’s men started the evening eight points above Atletico in second, but extended their advantage to 11 points in front of their home fans thanks to two late goals from Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi.There are now just seven rounds of games left to play before the end of the 2018-19 campaign - and it’s now very hard to see Atleti or Real Madrid, who sealed a 2-1 win over Eibar earlier on Saturday, catching the Catalan giants.Atletico were forced to play an hour with only 10 men, however, after Diego Costa was shown a straight red card for dissent midway through the first half.Referee Jesus Gil stopped the match, marched towards Costa and brandished the red card in his direction, to everyone’s confusion.

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There are unconfirmed reports in the Spanish press that Costa insulted Gil’s mother.

Regardless of what was said, the Spain international let down his teammates badly.

They faced a difficult enough challenge with 11 men on the pitch, let alone 10.

Indeed, Barça had already come close to taking the lead on two earlier occasions.

In the 14th minute a stunning pass from Messi, who received his La Liga Player of the Month award before kick-off, led to Jordi Alba hitting the woodwork.

Philippe Coutinho then spurned a good opportunity to break the deadlock after being played through by Luis Suarez; Oblak made the important save to deny the Brazilian playmaker.

Oblak went on to make two more great stops in quick succession from Suarez and Messi midway through the second half. He then pulled off another excellent double-stop from Messi and Malcom.

Without the world-class Slovenian shot-stopper, Barça probably would have won by several goals.

However, Oblak could do nothing to prevent the two quick-fire goals from Suarez and Messi that may have sealed the title for their team.

Here's how Suarez made it 1-0...

And here's how Messi doubled Barcelona's advantage...

Barcelona may look back and this match and see it as the night they effectively wrapped up the 2018-19 La Liga title.