Pep Guardiola praised his players' mental strength after Barcelona beat Real Madrid 1-0 at Camp Nou to leapfrog their rivals to the head of La Liga. Cristiano Ronaldo had the best chance to open the scoring in the first period before Zlatan Ibrahimovic climbed off the bench to net the winner on 56 minutes when he superbly volleyed home Dani Alves' cross.
The Catalans then had to play with ten men for almost 30 minutes after Sergi Busquests was sent off for a second bookable offence following a handball.
But Barcelona continued to carve out chances, with Gerard Pique heading wide and Lionel Messi spurning a late chance before Real's Lassana Diarra saw red in the dying seconds.
Afterwards Guardiola said the focus now turns to Wednesday's game at Xerez as the Catalans seek to maintain the pace at the top.
He told Spanish media: "We won one game and that is it - we have another test coming up immediately.
"Our ambition is to be champions and we want to win again on Wednesday."
Strong mentally
He added: "We were very strong mentally. We showed enough character to win at home. Madrid are a very good team, there is no doubt about that.
"They had their chances and they made life difficult but we tried to maintain possession.
"I expected Madrid to be aggressive early on. They are gelling together now and I think that they played well.
"Sometimes you play better and you win sometimes you do not but you still win. With ten men we pressured and attacked and had a few chances."
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