Barcelona Continues Impressive Form after 2-0 victory at Osasuna

Barcelona continued its impressive form with a 2-0 victory against Osasuna at the El Sadar stadium to close the gap on La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid.

Barcelona coach Ronaldo Koeman made two changes from the side which secured its place in the Copa Del Rey final on Wednesday after defeating Sevilla, with Samuel Umtiti and Antoine Griezmann coming in.

Osasuna tested Marc-Andre Ter Stegen in the 15th minute when the Barcelona goalkeeper tipped over a curling effort from Kike Barja. However, the visitors took the lead when Messi picked out a lovely pass to find Jordi Alba, who raced into the left side of the Osasuna penalty area to fire an angled drive into the roof of the net.

Ter Stegen had to be alert again in the 34th minute to push away Ruben Garcia’s shot across goal before Messi rolled a shot just wide of the far corner. however, the score remained 0-1 at halftime.

Both sides created chances in the second half and Osasuna came close to an equaliser in the 70th minute when Jonathan Calleri’s diving header dropped just off target from Garcia’s cross.

With eight minutes left, Messi set up teenage substitute Ilaix Moriba on the edge of the box, and the 18-year-old curled a fine left-footed effort into the top corner.

The victory followed Barça’s heroic second leg comeback win over Sevilla to reach the Copa del Rey final on Wednesday and notched a 13th league win in 16 games, while they are unbeaten since losing at Cádiz on 5 December.

The Catalans stay second but moved on to 56 points after 26 games, two points behind Atlético Madrid who have played 24 matches and host third-placed Real Madrid on Sunday.

Osasuna are 13th on 28 points.