In stuck matches, the other football can be a solution. Where possession, triangulations and possession do not arrive, strategy has arrived. Barcelona learned it at El Sadar, where they unraveled the game thanks to the stopped ball. Without a spark and only with De Jong's clairvoyance, the blaugrana would not have won. This time Lamine Yamal did not have the day. You can't put that responsibility on a teenager. Not even the debuts of Cancelo and João Félix helped. But Koundé put his head in a corner to put Barça ahead at the stroke of halftime and Lewandowski secured from 11 meters to get the team out of the mess that Chimy Ávila's equalizer had gotten them into.
Barcelona started the game very well and when not even 60 seconds had passed, they had already been able to take the lead on the scoreboard. In the first minute the visitors had a triple chance but, perhaps because they were cold so soon, the spikers couldn't find the net. Gündogan's header was flawed but it was picked up by De Jong who hit the post and Lewandowski was unable to hit the rebound from close range.
Barça did not open the can at that time and but it did not take long for the goal to return to prowl. Xavi, who was returning to the bench, kept Lamine Yamal as the starter for the third consecutive game. The momentum of the young winger outweighed the theoretical stripes of Raphinha, a World Cup player, signed for more than 60 million from the Premier last summer, who only entered the final stretch to lose time. The truth is that the academy player was not intervening much but the first ball he touched was about to transform into 0-1. Pícaro, wanted to sneak the shot under the legs of his marker so that the goalkeeper would not see it and find it on top of it, but the ball bounced off the defense. Gundogan, favored by the carambola, rushed in wanting to finish off quickly and with the outside and the occasion came to nothing.
The Blaugrana, with a more defined eleven, could not take advantage of the Osasuna rotations, where only two players (defenders Juan Cruz and Catena) from the Bruges game on Thursday repeated. And as the rojillos, with that experimental line-up, found their place, the duel became a Frenkie de Jong against Arnaiz. In Barcelona, the Dutchman is a one-man band. After the departure of Busquets, he is the key player in the creation, he goes down to start, he tilts the game, pauses and decides when it is played vertically. He still receives from Ter Stegen in his own area, who makes a wall with Lewandowski or ends up reaching the bottom line to cross and provoke a corner.
In the Navarrese team, without the usual Chimy Ávila or Budimir in attack, Arnaiz, who went through Barça B and made his debut with Valverde, was the most active, tough. He looked for the shot from the left and found Ter Stegen's fists and also tried it on an indirect free kick. Those plays encouraged Sadar, who saw their rival thick, who was saved by Ter Stegen in a shot from Aimar Oroz from the penalty spot after an incursion by Areso on the right. The German goalkeeper, from post to post, arrived in extremis.
If the spark of Lamine Yamal does not appear and if De Jong does not invent something, Barça lacks improvisation. It needs a bit of individual talent so that it's not all so uniform. Still, he was able to regain lost dominance.
And in the last play of the first half he had a prize but not as a result of a good combination but at the exit of a corner. The other football A great cross from Gündogan from the corner was headed by Koundé, who jumped more than Pablo Ibáñez, who complained of a possible push.
It was a psychological goal because as soon as the center was taken, the referee ordered the rest. Thanks to the stopped ball, Barcelona went ahead but as sometimes happened last year that did not mean a placid game. In this League, the champion has yet to have any, neither in the victories against Cádiz and Villarreal nor of course in Getafe.
Osasuna, more recognizable with the changes, was getting closer to a draw. Xavi wanted to prevent and threaten more with the entry of Ferran Torres for Lamine Yamal and also made Cancelo debut. But he could not avoid what was coming. Chimy Ávila equalized the contest with a left-footed shot from the front to the base of Ter Stegen's right post, who did not even budge before the genius of the Argentine striker, who made his fans go crazy.
Barça knew that the draw was a bad result and that forced the forced debut of João Félix. But the solution was found in the same plan as in the first part, De Jong's clairvoyance. His brain raised its head and saw Lewandowski's uncheck and hung the ball on him. The Pole, who had been very absent in the previous 80 minutes, since the triple chance in the first minute, controlled with his chest and was brought down in the area by Catena. Ortiz Arias signaled the penalty spot… although with suspense because he went to VAR to… expel the defender. Barça's number 9, sent off last year at El Sadar, did not get nervous and completely deceived Aitor Fernández.
To defend the three points, Xavi also used Iñigo Martínez, the third debutant of a night in which Barça entrusted themselves to set pieces to follow in the wake of Madrid.
Osasuna: Aitor Fernandez, Areso (Nacho Vidal 80), Catena, Jorge Herrando, Juan Cruz, Iker Munoz, Ibanez (Moncayola 72), Aimar Oroz, Ruben Garcia (Kike Barja 61), Arnaiz (Chimy Avila 62) and Raul Garcia (62). Budimir 62).
Coach: Jagoba Arrasate.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto (Cancelo 59), Kound, Christensen (91), Balde, Oriol Romeu (John Felix 79), De Jong, Gündogan, Lamine Yamal (Ferran Torres 59), Gavi and Lewandowski (Raphinha 91). ).
Coach: Xavi Hernández.
Stadium: El Sadar (21,966 spectators).
Referee: Ortiz Arias (c. Madrid).
Cards: Yellow cards for Lewandowski, Areso, De Jong, Balde. Red to Catena (84).
Goals: Koundé (45), Chimy Avila (76), Lewandowski (86).
