Vitor Roque Sparks Life, but Barcelona Still Struggles Against Osasuna

Barcelona is not delivering a good performance against Osasuna. Despite the efforts of Xavi Hernández, who announced on Saturday that he would step down as the head coach to free the team, they have yet to find the spark the coach hoped for after the painful defeat to Villarreal.

The entrance of Vitor Roque in the 62nd minute, however, has revitalized Xavi’s team. ‘Tigrinho’ completed a breakthrough run in his first play that his teammates had struggled to achieve in an hour of play. With a soft header, he put Barcelona ahead on the scoreboard.

With the 1-0 lead, Barcelona would move to 47 points, securing the third position, eight points behind the leader Girona with the same number of matches played and seven points behind Real Madrid with one game in hand. Additionally, they would extend the gap to three points ahead of Atlético Madrid, who plays at 9 PM against Rayo Vallecano.

WHAT IF THEY DRAW? A draw would not be acceptable for FC Barcelona. In such a scenario, with 45 points, Barcelona would remain in third place (pending Atlético’s match, with 44 points and one game in hand), trailing Girona by 10 points with the same number of matches and nine points behind Real Madrid with one game less, as they await their clash with Getafe tomorrow.

However, things could always take a turn for the worse. In the event of a defeat at Montjuïc, Xavi’s team would be left with 44 points in 22 matches, the same as Atlético Madrid, which plays tonight in their postponed Supercopa match against Rayo Vallecano. Furthermore, Athletic Bilbao, in fifth place, would be just two points behind Barcelona with 42 points.