Osasuna vs Barcelona, La Liga: Final Score 4-2, Barça's perfect start ...

Barcelona’s perfect start to the 2024-25 season has come to an end in their eighth match of the campaign thanks to a 4-2 loss away to Osasuna at the El Sadar Stadium on Saturday night. Hansi Flick’s side played a horrendous match and were second-best for nearly the entire game against an Osasuna team that defended almost perfectly and were quite simply incredible on the counter-attack all night, and deservedly handed the Blaugrana their first league defeat of the season in emphatic fashion.

FIRST HALF

Osasuna stayed true to their identity as an aggressive, offensive team and made a brilliant start to the game, pressing Barça high up the pitch, constantly winning possession in good positions and creating plenty of danger with their quick and creative front players.

And their excellent beginning was rewarded with the opening goal, after Pablo Torre gave the ball away in midfield the home team counter-attacked quickly, and Bryan Zaragoza’s brilliant cross from the left wing found the head of Ante Budimir who put the home team in front.

Barça were nowhere to be found in the first 20 minutes, and the absences of Lamine Yamal and Raphinha were clearly felt as a heavily rotated Barça side struggled to create any meaningful attacks despite Pedri’s best attempts to help his teammates get into good situations.

The Catalans continued to struggle mightily, and were made to pay again just before the half-hour mark: Pau Víctor was clearly fouled in midfield but the referee somehow didn’t call it, Aimar Oroz played a glorious through ball to find Bryan’s run, and the youngster rounded Iñaki Peña before doubling the home team’s advantage.

Barça finally began showing some signs of improvement towards the end of the half, taking better care of the ball and not giving away such easy counter-attacking chances to the hosts. They also had some good moments in attack, but never managed to generate a real opportunity.

The halftime whistle came to end a dreadful opening period for Barça, who had a ton of talent available at the bench but needed to play a lot better to have any shot at a second half comeback.

SECOND HALF

Hansi Flick made no changes at the break, sticking with the same lineup and hoping that his halftime chat alone would be enough to inspire his troops to improve at the start of the final period.

Flick saw exactly what he had hoped as Barça came out with more urgency and much better play in midfield and attack, and Robert Lewandowski had a sure-fire goal denied by a great save from Sergio Herrera.

Just 60 seconds after that, however, Herrera made an awful mistake that allowed Barça back in the game by giving the ball away near his own box and then failing to claim a pretty speculative shot from Pau Víctor, who somehow found the net with an effort from 30 yards to give his team a chance to make a comeback.

Flick made two changes at the hour mark, as Yamal and Raphinha replaced Víctor and Torre to try and capitalize on the Blaugrana’s momentum. Osasuna were still offering a threat on the break, however, and Budimir missed a huge chance right after Barça’s substitutions as the home team showed they were not interested in just defending their lead.

The crowd was hot and the pace picked up as Barça increased their pressure, and it felt as though another goal was just around the corner. Ferran Torres almost scored an incredible solo goal but Herrera made another brilliant save, and the visitors looked closer and closer to the equalizer as moved towards the final 20 minutes.

Flick went to his bench again at that point and called up Alejandro Balde and Marc Casadó, but they had no time to make an impact as another Osasuna counter-attack resulted in a key moment in the match: Juan Areso’s cross nearly found Budimir in the box but the striker was fouled by Sergi Domínguez and the referee pointed to the spot. Budimir scored for a second time on the night, and Osasuna restored their two-goal lead.

The home team refused to sit back and continued to attack relentlessly, especially against the left side of Barça’s defense as Balde found himself outnumbered time and time again and the home team created chance after chance. And they deservedly scored a fourth to finish off the win in style as Abel Bretones took the ball from Yamal at the edge of the box and fired a rocket into the bottom corner with five minutes to go.

Yamal made up for his mistake with a spectacular strike to make the game 4-2 as we reached stoppage time, but the Blaugrana couldn’t find a third to truly ignite their comeback bid.

The final whistle came to end Barça’s perfect start to the season, and there is zero doubt that they deserved to lose and played a very bad match from start to finish, except for the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Hansi Flick got the starting XI all wrong with way too many rotations, but those on the pitch also played very badly and deserve their share of the blame. Barça will still be top of the table regardless of what happens in the Madrid derby on Sunday, but this was an important reminder that there’s still work to be done and that the injury crisis does matter.

This team desperately needs depth, and the schedule won’t get any easier, or less busy, anytime soon.

Osasuna: Herrera; Areso (Herrando 84’), Catena, Boyomo, Cruz (Vidal 84’); Ibáñez, Torró; Bryan (Bretones 77’), Aimar, García (Peña 58’); Budimir (García 77’)

Goals: Budimir (18’, pen 72’), Bryan (28’), Bretones (85’)

Barcelona: Peña; Kounde, Domínguez (Fort 85’), Cubarsí, Martín (Balde 70’); Torre (Raphinha 59’), Eric, Pedri; Ferran, Lewandowski (Casadó 70’), Víctor (Yamal 59’)

Goals: Víctor (53’), Yamal (89’)