FC Barcelona bounced back from their last week surprise defeat against Real Sociedad with an emphatic 5-1 victory over a ten men Osasuna. Lionel Messi scored four goals and Pedro scored once for Barca. Lionel Messi has now scored 33 League Goals this season. He also has wrote a new record of scoring in 11 consecutive La Liga matches. David Villa whose future at the club is very much the talking point of the season got a rare start. He partnered Messi and Pedro in attack. The midfield had Xavi, Busquets and Thiago. Alves, Puyol, Mascherano and Adriano formed the defense. Valdes was on the goal. Iniesta, Cesc, Alexis, Alba, Song and Pinto started from the bench.
Taking a cue from Sociedad's performance of last week, Osasuna started pressuring us very high from the start. They were forcing a bit of mistake from our defense doing that. In the 4th minute Thiago forced a great save from the Osasuna keeper after Puyol spotted his run with a great long ball, Thiago controlled the ball with his chest and forced a full stretch save from the keeper. In the 11th minute Messi opened the scoring for us latching into a brilliant Xavi goal. That goal came from an error from the keeper with a clearance. Messi tried to find Villa with a great ball splitting the defense, the keeper Andreas rushed out to clear but hit straight at Xavi, Xavi took a bit of time but then spotted Messi running through the center, played a brilliant ball into the box. The finish was strange as Messi rounded off the keeper without even touching the ball properly. In the 24th minute out of nowhere we conceded the equaliser with Loe scoring from outside the box after our defense failed to clear a cross. In the 26th minute Pedro had a decent chance to put us in front after Thiago played the ball to him, but he ended shooting into row Z. In the 27th minute Osasuna defender Arribas was given his second yellow card for handling the ball inside the box a Adriano cross(which was a bit hard as he could do nothing to remove his hand, but again the ball was going to the goal) and we were awarded the penalty. Lionel Messi once again put us ahead(2-1) with a neatly taken spot kick. In the 37th minute we had a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside. In the 38th minute Lionel Messi hit the post with a brilliant header from a Alves cross. In the 40th minute we made it 3-1 with Pedro tapping home after Alves squared the ball to Pedro. That goal was definitely offside, when Xavi crossed the ball spotting Alves run; Alves was definitely offside.
In the 56th minute Lionel Messi completed his hat-trick with a brilliant finish from a great David Villa pass. In the 58th minute he scored his fourth of the night taking the scoreline to 5-1. Once again David Villa squared the ball to Adriano and he put it into the center where a duly arriving Messi converted the chance. In the 61st minute we made our first change - Thiago out for Alexis. In the 66th minute Cesc Fabregas came in for Xavi Hernandez. In the 74th minute we made our final substitution Song replacing Busquets. In the 75th minute Messi played a delightful ball into center, Sanchez could only hit wide. We were creating chances after chances, but most of them fell to Alexis who couldn't take them. In the dying minute David Villa was denied again by the keeper, Andres after Messi picked him up with a great pass.
Don't go by the scoreline, this game was a real tough nut to crack till the sending off happened. I will start with the negative for the start. The biggest was the defense, looked absolutely confused when Osasuna pushed us hard. The understanding between Puyol and Mascherano broke down countless times. Adriano was the worst of the lot constantly seen Missing in Action on the Osasuna's counter attack from left. The second has to be the tendency to concede cheap goals. This happened against Malaga midweek and happened again this week. Coming to positives is the win for one, Messi's continued scoring is another and Villa's improved performance tonight was a third. Now all the attention shift to the mid week Clasico clash in the Copa Del Rey Semi-Final.
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