The league leaders overcame ten-man Betis to take the title race to another week
FC Barcelona snuck past ten-man Real Betis to retake their position at the top of La Liga.
On a Saturday when all three of Spain's biggest sides had found themselves at the summit, goals from Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez ensured that the defending champions will remain there for another week at least.
Two games remain now and Luis Enrique knows that two wins will hand him back-to-back titles. However, their faltering energy levels and performances mean that is far from a foregone conclusion.
Heiko Westermann gave Barca a huge helping hand when he got himself sent off in the first half, but it was far from the convincing wins that the Nou Camp club were getting earlier this season.
A couple more of them and they won't care, but this title race feels not only like it will go to the wire but that there may also be one final twist.
But what did we learn? Ed Malyon breaks it down...
1. Luis Enrique rolls out the A-team, however tired
With nothing else to play for it wasn't a surprise to see Luis Enrique put his best team out.
But this was the team. Everyone fit. Everyone playing. The most firepower Barcelona can fit on one field.
And yet, it was a bit disappointing.
An incredibly long and arduous season is clearly taking its toll on Barcelona and since the international break it's been especially noticeable.
There's little doubt, if you ask most neutrals, that Barcelona have been the best team in La Liga this season, but they really are unmistakably staggering over the finish line - whether they end up winning the double or not.
2. Heiko Westermann's red card ends the game as a contest
In truth, Real Betis didn't start this game particularly well.
But, even so, they still appeared perfectly capable of keeping Barcelona out.
For the first 35 minutes they sat back and soaked up what their visitors could throw at them, and tried to counter. It wasn't an earth-shattering gameplan but it was one that works for teams, particularly at home, against the bigger clubs.
Everyone needs a bit of luck to get a result, but you also need players to not commit individual errors.
Betis failed on this.
However, whether the later errors would have occurred had Heiko Westermann not reduced his side to ten men is debatable.
Both of the German's accumulated yellows were fair decisions, but it was brainless play from an otherwise experienced player. Two bookings in seven minutes that killed his side's chances.
3. Barcelona's sluggish first halves continue
Barcelona are favourites to win La Liga, and rightly so.
Yet on their first-half performances they would be way off the pace.
Indeed, had every league game this season ended at the break then they'd be nine points behind Real Madrid, a ten-point swing from their current one-point cushion.
Why this is has been discussed on these pages before, and it's likely to be a combination of opponents having a strict, energy-intensive gameplan to deal with Barca's stars that eventually gets ragged as fitness levels struggle. In short, chasing Barca around for 60 minutes usually ends up in mistakes happening and Luis Enrique's men breaking you down in the end.
Today Betis held out for 45 minutes. They even held out for a little bit of the second half.
However, tired legs make bad decisions and a defensive mix-up (being kind!) gifted Barca the opener.
In these scenarios, the opener may as well be the winner.
4. Would you Adán and eve it?
It might not yet be completely clear who is to blame for Barcelona's opening goal as, while Antonio Adán appeared to make a mind-boggling error, there was a Betis defender trying a bicycle-kick clearance that we should factor into the equation.
The confusion when he missed meant that Adán simply ran past an otherwise fairly tame cross and Ivan Rakitic could chest down and tap home. Post-match he called it "a misunderstanding".
But whether you blame the defender or Adán, it did feel like a goalkeeping error and one that the former Real Madrid man would regret having said he was going to "f**k" Barca's title hopes.
There are many punchlines here but I'll leave you to pick your own favourite...
5. ¡Hay Liga!
And so it was that, even after 36 games each, the top three sides in La Liga remain virtually inseparable.
254 points amassed, but only a single one to keep them apart.
Two games each remain and it feels completely possible, even likely, that all three win both - which would see this title decided on head-to-head record.
Barcelona have a derby with Espanyol next week before travelling to Granada on the final day. Theoretically, and before even taking into account the Champions League distractions for the other two sides, that is the easiest run-in of any title challenger.
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