With a help from Ter Stegen, Barca are just two points from Atletico

With a second leg of the Champions League against PSG on their minds, Ronald Koeman’s men travelled 400km to Pamplona and played just enough to win: Osasuna – Barcelona 0-2.

It was one of those games which will be quickly forgotten by both sides, but it was important for Barca to win and maintain hope that they can somehow go back to the title race. They did what they could, they won and decreased the difference between them and Atletico to only two points. The rest is up to their rivals Real, who are playing the derby with the league leaders on Sunday, but it has to be said that Diego Simeone’s men still have two games in hand. If they lose one of them tomorrow, things will be very interesting.

Gerard Pique and Ronald Araujo were injured, so Oscar Mingueza, Samuel Umtiti, and Clement Lenglet were the three centre-backs, while Antoine Griezmann was again Messi’s partner in the attack, and Ousmane Dembele started the game from the bench. Barca keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen picked up where he left against Seville and played a great game. Osasuna had a quite well first half and actually had three shots on goal, but it was not a mere statistic, they were real chances. Ter Stegen stopped all of them, but he really showed his skills defending Barja’s shot in the 14th minute, and Ruben Garcia’s one on one, four-minute after the leading goal.

Until they scored, Barcelona’s players didn’t have a single shot on target. The first one was also the goal, and it was a beautiful one from Jordi Alba. And half of his 16 goals were provided by Leo Messi.

Barca could have scored earlier when Osasuna’s keeper Sergio Herrera made a stupid challenge on Messi outside the penalty area, but VAR saved him since Barca’s player was offside prior to the tackle.

The second half was a battle for the second goal of the match, and both teams knew how important can it be. Osasuna was again more concrete and could have equalized in the 69th and 70th minute, but they missed their chances, but Ilaix Moriba didn’t. Young Player used his chance and scored his first goal, and that was it, Barca could turn their minds to the PSG match.

LA LIGA ROUND 26

Friday

Valencia - Villarreal 2-1 (0-1)

/Moreno 40 pen - Soler 89 pen, Guedes 90/

Saturday

Real Valladolid – Getafe 2-1 (2-1)

/Plano 14, Weissman 24 – Mata 37)

Elche CF – Sevilla 2-1 (0-0)

/Guti 70, Carillo 76 – de Jong 90/

Cádiz – Eibar 1-0 (1-0)

/Negredo 40/

Osasuna – Barcelona 0-2 (0-1)

/Alba 30, Ilaix Moriba 83/

Sunday

16:00 Huesca - Celta Vigo

18:15 Atlético Madrid - Real Madrid

20:30 Real Sociedad - Levante

23:00 Athletic Bilbao - Granada

Monday

23:00 Real Betis - Deportivo Alavés