Barça 1-0 Osasuna: Vitor Roque makes the difference at Montjuïc
After Xavi’s call for unity since he announced his decision to step down at the end of the season, and despite the many absentees from the squad, his team showed cohesion as FC Barcelona won 1-0 against Osasuna in this postponed LaLiga matchday 20 fixture.
Vitor Roque provided a lovely moment as he scored his first competitive goal for the Club, with the only real downside being losing Ferran to injury after just five minutes.
Chances but no goals
Barça started by dominating the ball as is the norm, and Osasuna lined up with three central defenders to sit in a lower block to make it difficult to break through.
The blaugranes were looking in the mood, but it was tempered somewhat by Ferran being forced off with an injury after just five minutes, with his replacement Fermín meaning a slight switch in system.
The first proper effort fell to Lewandowski, whose header went just wide from a Gündogan free kick from the right. Fermín clearly wanted to make his mark and was running in behind effectively, with one great ball over the top just cut out by Osasuna captain García.
Dead ball situations were looking dangerous for Barça, Kounde heading over and wide from corner after 35 and 45+2 minutes respectively. Osasuna also came close from their own corner five minutes before half time and then Fermín fired over from yet another corner. 0-0 at the break.
Vitor Roque opens his account
The blaugranes came out with a lot of purpose after the restart, Lamine Yamal having a shot saved just two minutes into the half. It felt like the match was starting to turn in the home side’s favour, Lamine Yamal again involved, swinging in a great ball from the right that Gündogan headed just wide.
Just a minute later, the lively Fermín seemed unlucky to be substituted but on came Vitor Roque as Barça went two up top, and who could have guessed the impact. Cancelo got down the left and sent in an outside of the boot cross that Vitor Roque anticipated well, getting in front of his marker to head in past Fernández in the Osasuna goal. Cue wild celebrations in the Estadí Olimpic Lluis Companys!
Osasuna needed to gather themselves to try to force an equaliser, but the task was made much more difficult when Garcia saw a second yellow card after 67 minutes and his side went down to 10 men. To their credit, they pushed for an equaliser, coming closest to scoring on 76 minutes with a cross shot that flashed by the post before Iñaki Peña saved a goal bound effort just a minute later.
The rest of the game saw Barça almost grab a second on the break several times, but the defence did a stout job of repelling the visitors' attempts to restore parity. 1-0 the final score and three points in the bag!