(Football news) Barcelona got a scrappy 1-0 win against Osasuna at the Nou Camp. Xavi retained the same XI that defeated Real Betis 4-0 as Ferran Torres, Ousmane Dembele, Ansu Fati and Marcos Alonso among others continued to remain on the bench. Osasuna on the other hand benched a lot of their key players rested keeping the Copa Del Rey final against Real Madrid in mind. In the 26th minute Jorge Herrando on his La Liga debut pulled down Pedri who was through on goal. The referee didn’t hesitate at all and showed Herrando a straight red card. 10 minutes later Barcelona lost Gavi to injury as Ansu Fati came on to replace him. 

Barcelona did have a couple of half chances but they couldn’t test Aitor Fernandez. Frenkie De Jong had a really good chance in the 55th minute but the Osasuna keeper managed to save it. Aitor also pulled off a few good saves from Ansu Fati and Robert Lewandowski to keep it at 0-0. Lewandowski looked to have scored a scrappy goal but the linesman raised his flag for offside. Barcelona finally broke the deadlock in the 85th minute via substitute Jordi Alba. Barcelona took another step towards the La Liga title as they went 14 points ahead of Real Madrid.

Real Madrid couldn’t keep up with Barcelona as they lost 2-0 to Real Sociedad. Los Blancos were without the suspended Eduardo Camavinga and Vinicius Jr while Karim Benzema, Ferland Mendy, David Alaba and Luka Modric, Fede Valverde did travel with the team but just like the last game they didn’t come on.

Mariano Diaz got a rare start while Castilla players Alvaro Rodriguez, Sergio Arribas, Nico Paz and Carlos Dotor were all named on the bench. The first chance of the game was when Aurélien Tchouaméni fired a long range shot which was saved by Alex Remiro. Real Sociedad almost opened the scoring in the 16th minute as Martin Zubimendi was left unmarked in front of goal during a corner. 

The midfielder however could only manage to hit the crossbar as the score remained 0-0. The first half was pretty balanced but Real did have better chances. The 2nd half was an absolute disaster for Real Madrid from the beginning. Just after kick off Eder Militao tried to find Thibaut Courtois and gave the ball straight to former Real Madrid player Takefusa Kubo who found the back of the net.

In the 52nd minute, Dani Carvajal was booked for dissent and 8 minutes later he got a 2nd yellow for a clumsy tackle which could’ve been a straight red as well. Six minutes before full time Ander Barrenetxea sealed the win with a good goal. Real Madrid’s slim chance of stealing the La Liga thus ended with the loss. Barcelona can now seal the League with a win away at Espanyol next weekend.

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