Lionel Messi struck twice to give Barcelona a comfortable 3-0 win at Osasuna after the Catalans had raced against the clock to arrive in Pamplona in time for the Primera Division fixture. Pedro gave Barca the lead in the first half and Messi added his second-half brace to see Barca stay top of the league and ensure a happy ending to what had been a stressful day for the Catalan club.
Under Pep Guardiola Barca travel to away games on the day of the match, but the Catalans saw their plans thrown into disarray by an unexpected air controllers’ strike. Barca claimed in a statement on their website that they were originally given permission to play the match on Sunday evening by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). However, with Osasuna reportedly unwilling to change the fixture, the Catalan club were later told by the RFEF that the game would go ahead as originally scheduled, forcing Barca to make hasty road and rail arrangements for the journey to Pamplona. The squad left Barcelona at 4pm local time, catching the high-speed AVE train to Zaragoza and completing the rest of the trip by coach.
That saw the Catalan party arrive at the Reyno de Navarra stadium only shortly before the scheduled kick-off time, which was then put back by 45 minutes. When the match eventually started, Osasuna came out flying in freezing cold conditions and Jose Antonio Camacho’s men won two corners in the first two minutes. But Barca, with the same line-up as in Monday’s brilliant 5-0 humbling of Real Madrid at the Nou Camp, soon took control. David Villa was put through by Andres Iniesta and sliced wide early on and the Spain striker then almost got the touch needed to turn in Pedro’s cross after five minutes.
Osasuna were playing with intensity and looked threatening, but the home side’s resistance was finally broken after 26 minutes, when Messi stormed forward with the ball and put through Pedro, who slotted the ball past Ricardo Lopez to make it 1-0. Messi hit the post a minute later as Barca, showing no signs of tiredness or lack of concentration following their exploits earlier in the day, sought to put the game out of reach. Villa dragged a shot wide as the Catalans started the second half on the front foot.
The striker seemed to have left his shooting boots at home, but did set up Messi with a fine pass after 64 minutes and the Argentina forward raced clear before slotting a clinical low shot past Ricardo to make it 2-0. Osasuna’s Sergio Fernandez then brought down Messi in the area with eight minutes left and the 23 year-old picked himself up to fire the spot-kick past Ricardo and score his 15th goal from 14 league games.
The victory means Barca stayed at the top of the Primera Division. Osasuna are five points clear of the drop zone ahead of Sunday’s matches.
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