Barcelona defender Gerard Pique felt they showed great character for victory over Real Mallorca.

Barca played the last 33 minutes a man light after Thiago Alcantara was shown two yellow cards, but the visitors held on to maintain the six-point gap to the Primera Division summit.

"It was very hard to win, especially with 10 men," said Pique, whose goal 11 minutes from full-time finally put the match out of Mallorca's reach.

"The three points are very important and we deserved them.

"We tried to control the match; they wanted to equalise, but we played well with 10 players.

"The most important thing is that our title hopes are still alive. What really matters is winning and we've managed to earn a great victory."