3 things we learned from Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Atlético Madrid

The Blaugrana were well on top from the start. Messi shot just wide off a great feed from Neymar in the 9th minute, but made up for that mistake by setting up the Brazilian for the opener three minutes later. Messi fought through three defenders and squared for Suarez, who couldn’t control, but the ball fell to Neymar for a simple finish.

Not long after that, Neymar took a nasty knock on the ankle in a challenge with Jose Maria Giménez and was carted off with a sock covered in blood. Amazingly, he continued and played the full 90 minutes.

Atléti couldn’t mount any kind of an attacking challenge in the first half and were two behind by the break. Suarez netted the second, finishing off a pass from Messi that took a deflection off an Atléti defender, but somehow didn’t change directions at all before falling to his forward mate at the far post.

The beginning of the second half wasn’t any better than the first for the visitors until they got lucky with the officials in the 56th minute. Messi barely made any contact, if any at all, with Jesús Gámez in the box, but Atléti were given a penalty and Mario Mandžukić converted to cut Barca’s lead.

While the Rojiblancos were much better from then on, they never seriously tested Claudio Bravo. Fernando Torres came on for Gabi in the 68th minute, opening up some space for Barca, and they scored the clinching goal in the 87th minute. Messi played a 1-2 with Ivan Rakitic and fell down, but a missed touch by substitute Raúl Garcia fell right to Messi, and he didn’t slip on his second chance.

Barcelona: Bravo, Alba, Piqué, Mascherano, Alves, Busquets, Rakitić (Rafinha 89’), Iniesta, Neymar, Suárez (Pedro 90’), Messi

Goals: Neymar (12’), Suárez (35’), Messi (87’)

Atlético Madrid: Moyá, Gámez (Siqueira 83’), Godin, Giménez, Juanfran, Tiago, Gabi (Torres 68’), Koke, Griezmann (Garcia 74’), Turan, Mandžukić

Goals: Mandžukić (penalty 57’)

1. Atléti weren’t ready for Messi on the right - The Barcelona lineup was listed everywhere as having Lionel Messi up top and Luis Suarez out wide, but that’s not what happened. Suarez played center forward, while Messi was very much a right winger, much like he was in his early Barcelona days, when Samuel Eto’o was still great and they were trying to make Zlatan Ibrahimović work. This hasn’t been great lately, but Messi was excellent on Sunday, with his positioning having a lot to do with his involvement in all three goals. For once, someone managed to fool Diego Simeone tactically.

2. Gámez’s dive for the penalty was amazing - Many people won’t be happy with praise of dives, but whoa, what a world class dive by Jesús Gámez! There was basically no contact by Messi and Atléti shouldn’t have had a penalty, but we can’t blame the referee for missing one. The way he went down looked completely realistic. It was masterful deception.

3. Rumors of Barca’s demise were greatly exaggerated - A few days after a 5-0 cup demolition of Elche, Barcelona do this. Even if they drew this game, they would have been second in La Liga, a great Clásico performance away from becoming title favorites. They were never really in crisis, but this result confirms that they weren’t even anywhere near one.