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Osasuna smashed La Liga leaders Barcelona’s excellent begin to the period with an emphatic 4-2 success on Saturday and their instructor Hansi Flick stated he would certainly take the blame. The Catalans won all 7 of their opening components yet Flick’s greatly turned side came severely reversed in Pamplona as Ante Budimir racked up a support either side of Bryan Zaragoza’s strike. Pau Victor had actually offered Barca a lifeline to draw them back right into the video game prior to Budimir got his 2nd from the fine area.
Abel Bretones included a thrilling 4th from the side of package, prior to Lamine Yamal drew one back with a great initiative of his very own.
Victory would certainly have matched Barcelona’s fantastic begin to an organization project with 8 successive victories, yet they were unable to improve their four-point lead on second-place Real Madrid.
The Spanish champs go to Atletico Madrid, 3rd, in a derby clash on Sunday.
“In the first half we made a lot of mistakes, it’s not normal we play like this — we had a lot of changes in the team and this is maybe one reason for that,” Flick informed press reporters.
“I think it was necessary. We had so many matches, a lot of players had so many minutes, I have to take care about that. This is my responsibility.
“If you intend to criticize a person for this loss after that take me.”
Ahead of a Champions League match against Young Boys on Tuesday, Flick felt he had to shuffle his pack, especially after Barca lost at Monaco in their European opener.
The coach, missing several key players through injury, handed starts to inexperienced defenders Gerard Martin and Sergi Dominguez as well as Pablo Torre in midfield and Victor in attack.
The coach rested Spain Euro 2024 starlet Yamal and Brazilian winger Raphinha among other regular picks.
As a result Barcelona failed to ignite in the first half and Osasuna winger Zaragoza took centre-stage.
Last season Zaragoza struck twice while playing for Granada in a 2-2 draw against Barca, a performance which helped earn him a move to Bayern Munich.
On loan from the German giants, Zaragoza created the opener for target-man Budimir with a fine cross, which the Croatian nodded home with ease in the 18th minute after escaping the attentions of Dominguez.
Zaragoza finished the second himself 10 minutes later after being sent through on goal, with the winger bypassing goalkeeper Inaki Pena with a fine ball roll and then slotting into the empty net.
Barcelona complained there had been a foul on Victor in the build-up but the referee waved their complaints away.
The leaders created little themselves, with the best opening falling to Ferran Torres. However the Spanish winger miscontrolled on the edge of the box and was quickly swallowed up by the Osasuna defence.
End-to-end
Victor pulled Barcelona back into the game after Osasuna goalkeeper Sergio Herrera gave the ball away with a poor throw and then could not keep out his early shot from distance.
With Yamal and Raphinha thrown into the fray Barcelona began to threaten increasingly, although top scorer Robert Lewandowski was taken off with 20 minutes remaining after a flat display.
Against the run of play Osasuna increased their lead.
Dominguez, 19, scythed down Budimir in the area as he went to shoot and the striker buried the penalty.
Ruben Pena wasted a glorious chance to grab a fourth but Bretones made no mistake with a vicious effort from the edge of the box.
Yamal hit back brilliantly from range and teed up Torres who struck the post, but it was too little, too late.
“It’s regular there are turnings, there are a great deal of video games, it’s not a justification,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri told Movistar.
“In the 2nd fifty percent we was entitled to a little bit extra yet we allow objectives when we went to our finest.”
Osasuna rose to sixth and Zaragoza said his team had been determined to beat the leaders.
“We understood Barca were an extraordinary group, they had actually won whatever and we understood we needed to obtain penetrated it, which’s exactly how we headed out there,” explained the winger.
“It’s an unique video game and actually great to play in.”
Earlier Real Sociedad beat Valencia 3-0 and Getafe won their initial video game of the period with a 2-0 home success overAlaves Rayo Vallecano and Leganes shared a 1-1 draw.
(Except for the heading, this tale has actually not been modified by NDTV team and is released from a syndicated feed.)
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