Having suffered a shock home defeat to CD Leganés last weekend, Barca knew a positive response was needed against their in-form visitors. Hansi Flick’s men started on the front foot as Robert Lewandowski directed an early header wastefully over the bar before Inigo Martínez saw a tame effort comfortably thwarted by Jan Oblak.
The hosts continued to stamp their authority on proceedings as the first half progressed and their pressure was duly rewarded on the half-hour mark. Gavi’s neat turn on the edge of the box released Pedri through on goal and the Spanish midfielder held his nerve to slot clinically into the far corner.
Armed with the momentum, Barça went in pursuit of a quick-fire second before half-time, but Raphinha’s strike from range was blocked as Atlético kept the deficit to just a single goal.
The early stages of the second half followed a similar pattern to the first, with Fermín López seeing a sharp low effort superbly denied by Oblak.
The one-way traffic showed no signs of slowing down as Raphinha powered a brilliant strike from the edge of the box against the bar.
Grateful for that reprieve, the visitors levelled the scores on the hour mark when Rodrigo de Paul latched onto a loose ball from 20 yards and curled an inch-perfect effort into the bottom corner beyond Iñaki Peña.
With the match tantalisingly poised heading into the final 20 minutes, both sides went in pursuit of an all-important winner. Pablo Barrios saw a low strike smartly saved by Peña, while at the other end, Oblak came to the visitors’ rescue, denying Raphinha and Pedri in quick succession.
Those misses proved to be costly, as Atlético snatched a winner in remarkable circumstances, with substitute Sørloth finishing superbly from Nahuel Molina’s delivery in the sixth minute of stoppage time to hand Simeone a first-ever H2H away league win and move the visitors three points clear at the summit.