Barcelona has opened a gap of seven points at the top of the standings the league qualification for at least 24 hours thanks to a comfortable 2-0 victory against Osasuna at the Camp Nou on Saturday night. He blaugrana They dominated from start to finish and should have won by a wide margin, but a second-half brace from Raphinha was enough to seal a seventh consecutive league victory for Hansi Flick’s troops.
Reactions and observations
-
It’s hard to understand how the first half ended goalless. Barça had a fairly loud penalty call ignored, a goal disallowed for a strange (but correct) offside, two really good chances inside the area that Ferran Torres barely missed, and a long-range shot by Eric García that went horribly wide.
-
Seeing a 0-0 scoreline is certainly frustrating, but Barça’s overall performance was solid. Faced with a very defensive 5-4-1 from Osasuna, always very difficult to attack, the blaugrana They were creative and dangerous with their passing and movement, creating opportunities through long and short passes, shots from distance, good crosses into dangerous areas and more. It was a really strong offense that showed that it only lacked quality finishing and some luck.
-
Despite the team’s good performance as a whole, Raphinha was nowhere near his best in a central position. Hansi Flick has used the Brazilian a lot in that role since the start of last season, but he is clearly much better as a left winger and Marcus Rashford did nothing in the first half to justify moving Raphinha away from his best position.
-
The start of the second half was just as powerful, with a dangerous foul from Rashford, a cross from Alejandro Balde that only needed a touch from a Barça player to go in and several more “almost” moments.
-
But we had to wait until the 70th minute for Pedri to run with the ball 50 meters and find Raphinha in a perfect (central) position to shoot, score and find a well-deserved breakthrough. FINALLY!
-
Osasuna tried to advance but didn’t really offer a threat, and Raphinha concludes the victory with the help of an own assist (new statistic!) from an Osasuna defender.
-
This was a 5-0 win that looked like 2-0. Barça dominated, created more than enough to win so easily, never suffered in defense and deservedly won. It wasn’t vintage, but it was pretty solid. Seven wins in a row in the League, seven points ahead for at least one day and the good vibes continue.