Yamal’s curling strike gives Barcelona a hard-fought win at Athletic Bilbao

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Lamine Yamal once again showed his ability to decide a game when Barcelona's teenage star broke the deadlock with a gorgeous strike to earn a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.

The game was wide open with Athletic attacking in waves at its San Mames Stadium before Yamal tilted the match in the favor of the La Liga leaders.

The 18-year-old Spain forward received a pass from Pedri González that finally left him with some room to work on the right side of the area, where he used one touch to open a shooting angle before curling a left-footed strike off the upper edge of the far post.

The 68th-minute winner kept Hansi Flick's side four points clear of second-placed Real Madrid and on course to successfully defend its domestic title. Last round, Yamal scored his first hat trick in a league victory in a 4-1 win over Villarreal.

His 19 goals this season is already one more than he scored in the entire last campaign.

"We know that Lamine can do. He just put it in the corner, where the goalkeeper couldn't reach it," Pedri said. "The only thing he needs to avoid is settling for what he has already done. He just needs to keep working hard to give it his all."

The hard-fought away win at the Basque club came four days after Barcelona lost in the Copa del Rey semifinals to Atletico Madrid.

Flick rested some of his regular starters ahead of Barcelona's trip to Newcastle on Tuesday to start their Champions League round-of-16 matchup. Pedri, Raphinha and Fermín López remained on the bench until the final half hour. Marcus Rashford, Marc Bernal and Marc Casadó started in their place.

Éric García and João Cancelo also started for injured full backs Jules Koundé and Alejandro Balde.

Barcelona needed goalkeeper Joan García to keep the game scoreless until Yamal came through.

Argentina midfielder Nico González scored twice in the second half to lead Atletico Madrid to a 3-2 win over Real Sociedad in a matchup featuring the two Copa del Rey finalists.

Sociedad also booked a place in the cup final next month in Seville after beating Athletic Bilbao earlier this week in the semifinals.

Atletico sports director Mateu Alemany said that Antoine Griezmann will finish the season with the Spanish club, squashing speculation of an imminent move by the veteran forward to Major League Soccer.

Martín Demichelis saw his new team Mallorca squander a double by striker Vedat Muriqi and draw 2-2 at Osasuna in the Argentine coach's debut at the helm.

Muriqi took his scoring tally to 18 goals in La Liga this season, second only to Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé's 23.

But Osasuna got a goal from Kike Barja in the 89th before Ante Budimir netted the stoppage-time equalizer.

Demichelis replaced Jagoba Arrasate, who was let go last week with Mallorca in danger of relegation despite having one of the best strikers in the league in Muriqi.

Also, Girona's Joel Roca scored in injury time to snatch a 1-1 draw at Levante.