Barcelona team news: Star midfielder misses Atleti clash despite recovering from injury

Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 at the Vicente Calderon stadium to move into first place in the La Liga table.

Barca opened the scoring through a goal from Rafinha before Godin equalised on 70 minutes.

See More: For the latest Arda Turan news and everything else you ever wanted to know about the Barcelona star

Lionel Messi had the last laugh scoring on 86 minutes to win the game.

Enrique ended up sticking with a 4-3-3 setup despite rumours that he would switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Interestingly enough Rafinha – who recently returned from injury – warmed up for the game wearing a protective mask but played without it.

Rafinha – the man who needed a mask to protect his face during a warm up, but not the game itself pic.twitter.com/FhucVr5nfk

— Hamish Mackay (@HamishMackay) February 26, 2017

Barca are now unbeaten in five game since Arda Turan joined from Atletico Madrid in 2015.

Turan did recover in time for the game and travelled with the squad to Madrid but head coach Luis Enrique ended up leaving the Turkish international out of the side.

The 30-year-old was not considered to be match ready going into the clash but he has returned to full team training and should be able to play in Barca’s next game against Sportin Gijon on 1 March.

Turan was unable to play against his former side but Barca have now won three and drawn two games against Atleti since his transfer from the Madrid based side.

The 30-year-old attacking midfielder has now missed Barca’s last three games.

In other Barcelona team news Javier Mascherano was also ruled out of the Atleti clash due to injury but he has also returned to training and is almost match fit.

Aleix Vidal also missed the Atleti game due to injury.

Barcelona are currently first but Real Madrid do have two games in hand and could go four points clear if they win both matches.

Barca do however, have a slim chance at staying top if Real lose their next two games.