Barcelona edged past a stubborn Celta Vigo side 1-0 to maintain their four-point advantage at the top of the La Liga, thanks to a late header by Jeremy Mathieu.
Following a goalless first-half, Barca broke the stalemate as Mathieu scored in the 73rd minute with a back-post diving header from Xaxi's free-kick.
Celta's Fabian Orellana was shown a red card for throwing some grass at Barca defender Sergio Busquets in the 88th minute as he was allegedly spending too much time to take his free-kick, the BBC reported.
Earlier, Real Madrid had reduced the gap following a 9-1 thrashing of Granada in the early kick-off.
With the win, Barca are first in the La Liga table with 71 points, four points ahead of second-placed Real.
