Sports Weekly all-media reporter Liang Hongye reports
Barcelona successfully won Osasuna on the road. If Real Madrid cannot defeat Espanyol on the road in this round, Barcelona will officially become the La Liga champion in the 2025-26 season. Barcelona won the two devilish away games of Getafe and Osasuna in succession, which not everyone could have expected. This almost pushed Real Madrid into a corner. If Real Madrid did not win this round, they would face the pressure of congratulating Barcelona at Camp Nou.
Juan Garcia and the goalpost save Barcelona
Yamal is not there, and neither is Rafinha. In this case, Barcelona coach Flick uses a "box midfield" method to deal with Osasuna. Fermin acts as a false left forward. The actual situation is to form a double attacking midfielder with Dani Olmo. Pedri and Garvey serve as double defensive midfielders. Garvey starts for the third consecutive game. De Jong is still on the bench, the center position is held by Lewandowski, Baldeji replaces Yamal as the right winger, Eric Garcia becomes the right back, Cancelo serves as the starting left back, and the two central defenders are Hérad Martin and Kubasi.
The people at Barcelona are very aware of Osasuna's strength at their home stadium. Osasuna has remained unbeaten at home for ten consecutive years, including the game where they defeated Real Madrid 2-1. Just before that game, Barcelona had protested, accusing La Liga referees of always favoring Real Madrid. After this game, Barcelona president Laporta also revealed that Real Madrid's loss of points in the game with Osasuna was part of Barcelona's plan. So now it is Barcelona's turn to play Osasuna away from home, and the team will naturally not take it lightly. There is not much suspense about Barcelona's defending La Liga championship, but Barcelona still wants to win this championship as soon as possible.
Control of the ball became Barcelona's main method in the first half of the game, with the frontcourt pressing playing a supporting role. During this period, Barcelona's ball possession rate was as high as 70%. However, this tactic did not work well for Osasuna. The opponent seemed to have been prepared for this for a long time. Facing Barcelona's frontcourt press, Osasuna ball Players play the ball calmly and often use personal abilities and back-up methods to protect the ball, making it difficult for Barcelona to complete steals in the frontcourt. Osasuna can also launch defensive counterattacks from time to time. For example, in the 10th minute, Kubasi was forced to face Budimir alone in the penalty area. Fortunately, the Barcelona central defender successfully intercepted the ball.
Barcelona was in possession of the ball, but they were too stable in controlling the situation and the passing rate was relatively slow. Such an offensive only had a certain endurance. However, Osasuna also had patience. Barcelona failed to break through the defensive line at the front of Osasuna's penalty area. On the contrary, Osasuna's counterattacks always found gaps in Barcelona's defense. Just like in the 36th minute, Croatian center Budimir got a chance to counterattack and continuously changed directions in the penalty area. In the end, his shot was blocked by the goal post. Later, Osasuna also used the opportunity to steal the opponent's ball in the frontcourt, Budimir launched a long-range shot, and Juan Garcia made a magical save to relieve Barcelona's crisis.
In the first half, although Barcelona controlled the ball, it was difficult for them to play a threatening offensive posture. The ball could not be passed to Lewandowski's feet in the penalty area. Instead, Osasuna was able to launch a threatening counterattack. In the first half, Barcelona's expected goal ratio was only 0. 3, there is not a truly great opportunity, but Osasuna has 2 great opportunities, and the expected number of goals is 0.21. When Barcelona has 70% of the ball possession ratio, there is actually not much difference in the chances of the two teams to score.
The three forwards break the game
At the beginning of the second half, although Flick did not make any personnel substitutions, Barcelona's passing rate and the rhythm of individual players actually improved to a higher level. It was based on this situation that it actually put corresponding pressure on the Osasuna team. In the 50th minute, Olmo took advantage of the point to shoot, but the ball was successfully blocked by the opponent's defender, and the first scoring opportunity in the second half appeared.
When the team had the advantage but failed to score, Flick decisively changed the team's way of playing. The specific method was to replace the two forwards Phelan and Rashford, so that they and Lewandowski could form a three-forward formation, abandoning the "box midfielder" four-midfield model and replacing Olmo, Garvey and Baldeji. Barcelona seemed a little out of order at this time, just like in the 63rd minute, Rashford took a long-distance shot for the first time when he touched the ball. This formed a very obvious contrast with Barcelona's previous "box midfielder" with clear logic. But what we need to pay attention to is that Rashford played on the right, not the left. This is Flick's development of the England forward in the new position. If Rashford stays in Barcelona next season, will this be a signal that Yamal will move to the center?
The goal scored by Barcelona showed a certain strange characteristic in its arrival. It was not the typical offensive goal that the team usually launched after deep cooperation and successfully tearing apart the opponent's defense. In the 81st minute, after Rashford got the ball on the right, he was almost at a standstill due to difficulty in finding a passing route. Even though other players were surrounding Rashford to provide movement support, Osasuna did not make any marking errors. This resulted in Rashford being unable to pass the ball at all. What's interesting is that Lewandowski is in the penalty area, competing for position with Osasuna right center back Katner, and gesturing towards Rashford to communicate. After seeing Lewandowski successfully grab the position in front of the opponent's central defender, Rashford passed the ball decisively, and Lewandowski smashed the ball into the net with a header, and the final score was fixed at 1-0. After the football game, Lewandowski said this. At that time, he noticed that the opponent's defense showed some signs of looseness. At this time, Rashford keenly captured the perfect opportunity to cross, and the ball he passed was very powerful. This is extremely critical. At that moment, he chose to pass the ball. The center has more advantages than passing the ball. For a player who plays the center position, this is undoubtedly a wonderful opportunity. The center defender was located on his left side at that time. As a center, it is very important for him to receive the ball within the penalty area. This is very important for his role.
Five minutes after Lewandowski scored, in the 86th minute, Barcelona started to press in the frontcourt. Osasuna sent a side ball, which was stabbed by Cancelo. Then Fermin took the ball. Fermin immediately passed the ball directly to Ferran. Ferran did not stop the ball and went directly to play a single ball. The single ball went into the net and the score became 2-0. Then in the 88th minute, Osasuna's center Raul, who came on as a substitute, recovered a goal with a header. At this time, the score became 1-2. However, in the course of the game after that, Osasuna never had a shot. On the contrary, Ferran had a good chance to score in the 96th minute, but it was a pity that he missed the goal. In the end, Barcelona defeated Osasuna.
After Barcelona's victory, as long as Real Madrid does not defeat the Spaniard on Sunday, Barcelona will win the championship in advance, and then next week will usher in Barcelona's home game against Real Madrid in the century battle. According to the usual tradition, Real Madrid needs to line up to perform against Barcelona before the start of the game. Congratulations, but the Barcelona players did not show their persistence in lining up for Real Madrid. Ferran was asked after the game whether he expected to win the championship before facing Real Madrid or after facing Real Madrid. Ferran simply said: "For us, the sooner the championship comes, the better."
This summer, there is a huge suspense about what kind of center Barcelona will add. The reason is that it is very likely that Lewandowski will leave. After the game, a reporter asked, Lewandowski has won three league championships in the past four years at Barcelona, so whether he still wants to continue to win the league championship. It is not clear whether Lewandowski did not understand the reporter's question at all. It means that it is about whether he will stay in Barcelona next season. Lewandowski only expressed this content: "Yes, it is quite wonderful to be able to parade in the city and celebrate the championship in front of the fans." Whether Lewandowski deliberately misunderstood the reporter's question or not intentionally, I am afraid only the Pole himself knows this.
Flick also did not show the obsession with Real Madrid lining up to win the championship in advance. After the game, when the German was asked if he would watch the Spaniard's home game against Real Madrid on Sunday night, Flick said: "I am going to watch the performance of Magician Pop on Sunday.".
Barcelona achieved two consecutive league championships and became the dominant player in La Liga. This made Barcelona fans happy. However, for Barcelona fans, what they expected was obviously to go one step further and win the Champions League. In view of the fact that Paris played against Bayern in what can be called the most classic match in the history of the Champions League, someone asked Flick before the game if Barcelona had any Flick responded seriously: "We are 100% at the same level as Paris and Bayern." Commentator Emilio said: "In public, Flick can only say this. When he meets with Laporta for a meeting, he should start buying people, but Barcelona actually doesn't even have a penny."
There is a tradition in Spain of lining up to welcome the champion. The purpose is to congratulate and affirm the champion, but not to humiliate the champions. However, some commentators from Madrid always insist on such a point of view: "If Real Madrid cannot defeat the Spaniards, then Real Madrid should not return to Madrid, Barra Haas Airport will not be open to them at the moment. Even if Barcelona has won the championship in advance, Real Madrid will definitely not line up for Barcelona. This is because the photos this time will go into history and become Real Madrid's shame. "If Real Madrid really fails to win the Spaniard, I think the topic around the Spanish media this week will be the question of whether Real Madrid lines up. For Barcelona, whether the opponents line up is not the main issue. The key lies in how to plan for next season after winning the championship and how to enhance the team's strength. Flick told Deco that he hoped the club would "not do stupid things" in the summer. Although Laporta claimed in the media that the team can cope with a transfer of 100 million euros, the club's financial fairness issue has not been resolved, and the prerequisite for signing is to sell valuable players. Presumably the stupid thing in Flick's eyes is that during this increase and one subtraction, the team's strength has been weakened instead of improved, so Deco and Laporta have to think twice before making a move.