WHAT A FINISH!
Barcelona have opened up a momentary 14-point lead at the top of the La Liga table with five games to go thanks to a dramatic 1-0 victory over Osasuna at the Spotify Camp Nou on Tuesday evening. The home team played a very good game against a parked bus from the visitors but couldn’t finish their chances, and needed a late winner from Jordi Alba to get all three points and essentially seal the title.
FIRST HALF
Osasuna played a bunch of youngsters and came to Camp Nou looking to be extremely defensive and frustrate Barça, fully parking the bus and defending with a back six at times. They forced the home team to slow down the pace and be very patient and deliberate with their passing and movement.
The visitors became even more defensive when center-back Jorge Herrando was sent off with a straight red card for a foul on Pedri that denied a clear goalscoring opportunity, and Osasuna were down to 10 men with an hour left to play and camped themselves even deeper inside their own half.
Barça were a little too slow at times and couldn’t inject enough pace in their attack, but they still managed to create a few very good chances with great passes from the likes of Frenkie De Jong and Pedri, who found the forward players who made timely runs in behind with beautiful through balls both on the ground and over the top of the defense.
Pedri missed the best chance of all, but Raphinha nearly scored a gorgeous free-kick and Ronald Araujo headed a corner just centimeters over the bar. There were other half-chances and dangerous moments, but the Blaugrana couldn’t find the back of the net in the first half.
At the break Barça were up a man but yet to break down the Osasuna defense, and they needed more pace and energy up front to find the goals in the second half.
SECOND HALF
Barça finally took advantage of the numerical superiority and started to open up really big spaces inside the Osasuna defense with even more movement and quicker passing, and they created plenty of really big chances.
That’s when Osasuna goalkeeper Aitor Fernández began to shine, making three massive saves against Frenkie De Jong, Robert Lewandowski and Ansu Fati and keeping his team alive as we reached the final 15 minutes.
Barça’s pressure turned into a siege and it seemed as though the Blaugrana had finally broken the deadlock through Lewandowski, but the goal was ruled out for a very narrow offside on Ferran Torres with 10 minutes to go.
The home team continued to apply the pressure and stretch the Osasuna defense to its breaking point, and they finally got the reward for their hard work: a cross from Lewandowski found De Jong inside the box and the Dutchman used his head to make a sensational assist to Jordi Alba, who was all alone and fired it home off the post.
Barça protected the lead and the final whistle came to give them all three points. This was a lot more dramatic than it needed to be, but the Blaugrana played a lot better against a parked bus than they’ve done in the past and fully deserved the victory, which would have easily been 4-0 or maybe more with better finishing. They left it late this time, but they got the job done.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Kounde, Araujo, Christensen (Eric 52’), Balde (Alba 76’); Pedri, Busquets (Ferran 75’), De Jong; Raphinha (Dembélé 52’), Lewandowski, Gavi (Fati 36’)
Goal: Alba (85’)
Osasuna: Fernández; Moreno, García, Herrando, Sánchez; Ibáñez, Torró (Cruz 59’), Aimar (Muñoz 46’); García (Barja 46’), Ávila (García 59’), Benito (Aridane 70’)
Goals: None
Red Card: Herrando (27’)
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