In deadlocked matches, the other football can be a solution. Where the possession, the triangulations and the combination did not arrive, the strategy arrived. Barcelona learned this at El Sadar, where they broke the deadlock thanks to the blocked ball. Without grace and only with the clairvoyance of De Jong, the Blaugrana would not have won. This time Lamine Yamal did not have the day. A teenager cannot be charged with this responsibility. Even the debuts of Cancelo and João Félix did not throw off the balance. But Koundé headed in a corner to put Barça ahead on the edge of the break and Lewandowski, again in the final stretch, secured from 11 meters to get the team out of the mess they had been in tie by Chimy Ávila.
Barcelona started the game very well and, before even 60 seconds had passed, they could have taken the lead, but they had to suffer to win. During the first minute, the visitors had a triple chance but, perhaps because they were cold, so soon, the finishers did not find the net. Gündogan's header was deflected but was collected by De Jong, who hit the post and Lewandowski was unable to score from close range.
Xavi, who returned to the bench, kept Lamine Yamal as the starter for the third consecutive match. The momentum of the young winger weighed more than the theoretical gallons of Raphinha, a World Cup player, signed for more than 60 million from the Premier League last summer, who only entered the final stretch to waste time. The truth is that the player wasn't doing much, but the first ball he touched was about to turn it into 0-1. Pícaro wanted to slip the shot under the legs of his marker so that the goalkeeper would not see it and find it above him, but the ball bounced off the defender.
The Blaugrana, with a more defined eleven, were unable to take advantage of Osasuna's rotations, in which only two footballers (defenders Cruz and Catena) repeated from Thursday's match in Bruges. And as the reds, with this experimental line-up, settled down, the duel turned into a Frenkie de Jong against Arnaiz. In Barcelona, the Dutchman is the man of the orchestra. After the departure of Busquets, he is the key player in the creation, goes down for the exit, swings the game, pauses and decides when to play vertically. In the same way he receives from Ter Stegen in his own area, creates a wall with Lewandowski or ends up reaching the bottom line to center and provoke a corner.
In the Navarrese squad, without the usual Ávila or Budimir in attack, Arnaiz, who went through Barça B and made his debut with Valverde, was the most active. He looked for the shot from the left and found the fists of Ter Stegen. His plays encouraged El Sadar, who saw their opponent thick and saved Ter Stegen in a shot by Aimar Oroz from inside the area. The German goalkeeper, from post to post, arrived in extremis.
If Lamine Yamal's spark doesn't appear and if De Jong doesn't invent something, Barça lacks improvisation. It takes a bit of individual flair so it's not all that uniform. However, in the last play of the first half he had a reward, but not as a result of a good combination, but at the exit of a corner. A great cross from Gündogan from the corner was headed home by Koundé, who jumped higher than Pablo Ibáñez.
It was a psychological goal because right after he took it from the center, the referee called for a break. Thanks to the blocked ball, Barcelona took the lead but, as happened to them at times last year, this did not mean a placid game. In this League, the champion has not yet had one.
Osasuna, more recognizable with the changes, was getting closer and closer to the tie. Xavi wanted to prevent and threaten more with the entry of Ferran Torres for Lamine Yamal and also gave Cancelo his debut. But he couldn't avoid what was coming. Chimy Ávila leveled the contest with a left-footed strike from the front to the base of Ter Stegen's right post, who didn't even flinch in the face of the genius of the Argentinian forward, who sent his fans into a frenzy.
Barça knew that the draw was a bad result and this 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. The brain looked up, saw Lewandowski's clearance and hung the ball to him. The Pole, missing for the previous 80 minutes, controlled with his chest and was brought down in the area by Catena. Ortiz Arias pointed to the penalty spot...with suspense. He went to VAR to...send off the defender. Barça's 9, sent off last year at El Sadar, did not get nervous and deceived Aitor Fernández.
To defend these three hard-fought points, Xavi used Iñigo Martínez, the third debutant of a night in which Barça relied on set pieces to be able to follow Real Madrid's line.
