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An inspired cameo from the young Brazilian and three great points
Barcelona has returned to its winning ways and once again occupies third place in the standings. the league qualification thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Osasuna in the Montjuic Olympic Stadium on Wednesday night. The Catalans struggled for most of the night against the Osasuna defense, even after the visitors were reduced to 10 men, but an inspired substitution by young striker Vitor Roque decided the match and gave the blaugrana three crucial points at home.
FIRST HALF
The game began with more bad injury news for Barça, as Ferran Torres left the field crying due to a hamstring problem just five minutes into the game. In his place came Fermín López who tried to impact the game with his movement and tenacity, but it was difficult for the Blaugrana to attack throughout the half against Osasuna’s 5-3-2 parked bus.
He blaugrana They only threatened with crosses and set pieces, with Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde missing a couple of good headers and Fermín unable to finish off a brilliant Lamine Yamal cross that should have resulted in a goal.
Osasuna did almost nothing to offer danger in the opposite direction, and their only half-chance came after a corner and a deflection that accidentally hit Ante Budimir’s head and almost went in. The entire first half passed at a painfully slow pace for both of them. both teams, and neither team deserved to be ahead at half-time.
At half-time the game was boring and goalless and Barça showed their usual problems against a low block, and urgently needed a little more intensity and a touch of inspiration to find a breakthrough in the second half.
SECOND HALF
The start of the second half brought more of the same from both teams, as Osasuna remained in their low block looking to continue frustrating Barça, while blaugrana They showed very little urgency in their play and continued to struggle to create anything more than a couple of dangerous crosses from Lamine Yamal.
But Xavi Hernández made an inspired change when Vitor Roque replaced Fermín, and the Brazilian needed just 90 seconds on the pitch to inject speed and life into the Barça attack and finish off the best passing sequence of the entire match, which ended with a cross from João Cancelo and Roque’s header put the hosts ahead.
Roque had another key impact on the match shortly after his goal when Unai García fouled him stopping a promising attack, leading to a second yellow and red card for the Osasuna captain. The visitors were reduced to 10 men just as they were making attacking changes to look for an equaliser, and Barça suddenly found themselves in a strong position to score a second goal and confirm the victory.
But they were in serious danger of conceding the tie for a while, as Osasuna had nothing to lose even with 10 men and threw many bodies forward and created real scoring chances, with Budimir hitting the post and Iñaki Peña making a strong save in a long shot that the visitors were very close to scoring.
Barça finally regained control of the match and almost doubled their lead with 10 minutes left when Roque gave the pass to Lewandowski, who scored a nice goal on the counterattack, but the Pole was offside in the build-up and the goal was annulled.
The home team did a good job of running out the clock and preventing a late Osasuna charge, and the final whistle came to give Barça three crucial points. It wasn’t a great game by any means and Barça suffered again against a parked bus, but at this point in the season they only needed a victory and good news.
They achieved victory and the good news is that Vitor Roque has arrived. Injuries in attack will mean a greater role for the Brazilian in the coming weeks, and his winning appearance off the bench will provide much-needed confidence to a youngster with obvious potential. Parabens, Tigrinho!
Barcelona: Grief; Koundé, Araujo, Cubarsí, Cancelo; Pedri (Romeu 77′), De Jong; Yamal, Gündogan, Ferran (Fermín 7′ (Roque 62′)); Lewandowski
Goal: Rock (64′)
Osasuna: Fernandez; Areso, U. García, D. García, Herrando, Mojica; Moncayola (Barja 83′), Torró (Ibáñez 83′), Aimar (Brasanac 68′); Budimir (Ru. García 68′), Arnáiz (Ra. García 68′)
Goals: None
Red card: U. García (67′)
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