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MADRID. — Real Madrid remain eight points adrift of Barcelona at the top of the Spanish La Liga soccer table after failing to break down Athletic Bilbao in a 0-0 stalemate as captain Sergio Ramos saw the 24th red card of his career.

Earlier, Celta Vigo became the first team this season to take points off Barcelona at the Nou Camp in a thrilling 2-2 draw.

Atletico Madrid took advantage of Barca’s stumble as Antoine Griezmann’s winner against his former club two minutes from time earned a hard-fought 2-1 win over Real Sociedad to move to within six points of the leaders.

Real are now tied for fourth with Sevilla, who beat Deportivo la Coruna 2-0 on the day their coach Eduardo Berizzo was released from hospital just four days after undergoing an operation on a cancerous prostate tumour.

Celta have been a bogey side for Barca in recent years, beating the Catalans once in each of the past three seasons.

A positive start from the Galicians on Celta boss Juan Carlos Unzue’s return to the Camp Nou, where he spent three years as Luis Enrique’s assistant, was rewarded 20 minutes in when Aspas tapped home on the rebound after a stunning save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen had denied Maxi Gomez.

Celta’s lead lasted two minutes, though, as Messi latched onto Paulinho’s pass to fire low under Ruben Blanco for his first goal since late October.

Messi then took control of the game as Barca pressed and finally broke Celta’s resistence just after the hour when his pass freed Jordi Alba to tee up Suarez for his first goal at the Camp Nou in nearly three months.

An end-to-end encounter swung back Celta’s way in a double blow for Barca.

Umtiti pulled up with a hamstring problem that will keep him out for eight weeks as he chased Aspas down the right and the Spanish international then patiently picked out Gomez to fire into an unguarded net.

“It was a series of unfortunate incidents in the one move,” lamented Valverde.

“Above all for the injury to Samuel than to give away the goal.”

However, a bad day for Barca wasn’t compounded by Real cutting the gap at the top as the European champions failed to score for the third time in their last nine La Liga games in a game short of clear-cut chances in Bilbao.

Karim Benzema struck the post with the visitors best opening inside 10 minutes, but Real also had Keylor Navas to thank for a pair of fine saves to deny Inaki Williams and Aritz Aduriz either side of halftime. — AFP.