Huesca 0-1 FC Barcelona: Happy New Year

On the occasion of Leo Messi’s 500th LaLiga appearance for Barça, the visitors began the game on the front foot at the Estadio El Alcoraz. The first real opportunity arrived in the sixth minute with Pedri forcing a good save from Álvaro Fernández.

Martin Braithwaite also went close in the opening 10 minutes as Barça looked to get the goal that their attacking play deserved, with Marc-André ter Stegen’s only action in the first quarter hour a header off of his own line from a high back pass.

Purposeful

A purposeful run from Ousmane Dembélé saw him show a clean pair of heels to the Huesca defence, and it was the Frenchman who provided a great cross shortly after for Pedri to head just over.

A brilliant cross from Messi before the half hour picked out Frenkie de Jong, and the Dutchman opened his body up to sweep Barça ahead with a fine finish. Messi looked to have doubled the lead himself from a direct free-kick just before the break, but another incredible save from Álvaro Fernández denied him.

Domination

The script didn’t change in the opening stages of the second-half, Huesca finding it difficult to get out of their own half. Barça stroked the ball around with ease, looking for a passing lane to open up between the host’s tightly-packed defensive block.

Dembélé was able to beat the keeper on 55 only to see his shot blocked by the covering defender, as the visitors continued to forage in the attacking areas. To emphasise Barça’s domination, the visitors had had 14 shots at goal at the hour mark compared to none for Huesca.

For the third time in the game, Álvaro denied the blaugranes a certain goal after Messi fired in following a sumptuous one-two with Pedri, and ter Stegen was finally called into action midway through the half saving a cheeky back-heel that almost caught him out. Though Huesca tried their best late on to affect the result, Barça kept them at arms-length to make it six games unbeaten.