How an unfortunate injury was the key to Barcelona's win vs Osasuna

Barcelona had a very difficult week, which included the absurd stoppage time defeat against Villarreal and the subsequent resignation of Xavi Hernandez, who will stay until the end of the season to try to lead the team as far as possible in the Champions League, while looking to improve performances in La Liga.

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With this scenario, Wednesday's match against Osasuna in Monjuic seemed like a perfect opportunity to leave behind the failures of the last few weeks and start from scratch to face the rest of the season with new energy. But none of that happened. The level of the team was far from expectations and was too similar to that of the previous matches, which made the fans' enthusiasm fade as the minutes went by.

And that was not all, since in the first minutes of the match Xavi had to make a change due to the unexpected injury of Ferrán Torres. The Spanish forward, one of the few who had shown good performances lately, felt a muscular pain and could not continue playing, so Fermin Lopez replaced him. This later was key for the destiny of the match, because Lopez was not convincing and the manager replaced him after the break, bringing in Vitor Roque.

The Brazilian striker had been imprecise in his first games in Spain, missing the chances he had had to score his first goal in the blue and red shirt. But everything changed 18 minutes into the second half, when he received a floated cross from Joao Cancelo and netted the opener with a header. The advantage was enough for Los Blaugranas, although near the end goalkeeper Iñaki Peña had to save a dangerous shot by Jon Moncayola.

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Now they are a little closer

With the three points they got on Wednesday, Barcelona reached 47. They are now 7 behind Real Madrid and 8 behind Girona, the leaders. But Los Blaugranas know that the title is far away, so their main objective is to secure their place in the next Champions League and the Spanish Super Cup. To do so, they must finish the season as high as possible in the standings.