La Liga: Barcelona maintain four point lead at top with win over Celta

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. Celta were giving the visitors a tough time, as none of the forward trio of Messi, Neymar and Suarez could score. 

A notable lacklustre was seen especially by the Argentine who was frustrated for most of the time. 

However, 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.