Barcelona breezed past Osasuna in a 2-0 win at home on Thursday, ensuring they would have a three-point lead in La Liga’s title race ahead of another pivotal weekend in a tightly-contested race for first place.
The hosts scored the game’s lone goals fairly early on, with Ferran Torres opening the scoring in the 11th minute. Dani Olmo followed up with a penalty just 10 minutes later, ensuring Barcelona would be in cruise control for the rest of the game. They outshot Osasuna 19 to three and did not face a single shot on target throughout the match, doing so without Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha as they returned from international duty with Poland and Brazil, respectively. Lewandowski, though, did come off the bench to score the game’s third goal in the 77th minute.
This game was rescheduled from earlier this month, with La Liga opting to postpone the game after the sudden passing of Barcelona’s team doctor Carles Minarro Garcia, which is why it was played so soon after the conclusion of the international break.
Here are the most noteworthy moments from the game.
Moment of the match
Barcelona set the tone early as Torres scored just 11 minutes in, finishing off a nice team goal that reflected the ease that they have played with at times this season. Credit must go to Alejandro Balde, who played a fantastic ball across the face of the goal that allowed Torres to score from close range.
Man of the match
Outside of scoring the game’s opening goal, Torres kept busy for much of his 68-minute shift on Thursday. He took four shots and generated 1.18 expected goals on his own, a sizable fraction of the 3.19 xG the team boasted by the final whistle, all while continuing to prove his worth as a valuable attacking option even when Lewandowski and Raphinha were unable to start on Thursday.
What this result means for Barcelona
Barcelona have now played the same amount of games as their opponents in La Liga and have a three point lead over second place Real Madrid. Their lead over Atletico Madrid sits at seven points with 10 games to go in the season.
What’s next
Barcelona return to La Liga play on Sunday when they face 13th place Girona and then will play in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals against Atletico Madrid after playing to a 4-4 draw in the first leg in February.
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