I haven't spoken (written) much about Barça this season, mainly because there wasn't much to say. A team that spent 200 million euros in the summer has been disappointment after disappointment and continued to be the laughingstock of European football with a Champions League run that has ended in just six games. Last night's game was something to talk about, however.
After the horrendous month we had in October - getting kicked out of the UCL by Inter Milan, and losing against a Real Madrid side that didn't even seem to try that hard- things were grim. We managed to not drop points against Valencia (in a game in which we were terrible but held on with a last-minute goal by Lewy) but Real Madrid was still looking untouchable. Then, as November began and Benzema decided that he would only play for France, Madrid started dropping points against minor teams (Rayo and Girona), suddenly putting Barça in a position in which we could secure an (at least) 2-point lead before the World Cup break, leading the table for the first time since like April 2021.
The game against Osasuna -who have had a fantastic start to the season, winning 8 games, drawing against Real Madrid away, and being 2 points away from Champions League Football- and especially at El Sadar (where they've won all but 2 games) seemed like the place to see whether Barcelona has emotionally recovered from another Champions League disappointment and is able to shake off its bad results by clinging to the League.
So naturally, by minute 5 we were already losing, and by minute 30 Lewandowski was sent off. Busquets was a trainwreck, which made the team unable to keep the ball and attack coherently, while all Osasuna had to do was defend itself coherently and wait patiently for our mistakes. By half-time, we were (again) a defeated team.
The second half that Barcelona played was incredibly smart with one man down, with Pedri and De Jong helping the team control the game (and De Jong building brilliantly as a CB after Gavi came on) and Ferran Torres being an intelligent striker that forced Osasuna's mistake to help Pedri draw the game. Right when it looked like both teams were content with a draw, a 30-metre assist from De Jong and a great finish by Raphinha made it 1-2.
Xavi's Barça has been a ride so far, with great games (4-0 against Madrid, 2-4 against Napoli) and horrendous losses (points to everything else) but games like this one are a godsend to a team that is still under construction and doesn't know what it will end up being. I hadn't seen a reaction like this from Barça since, well, since Messi was around and able to change a game in a minute. Maybe we can go back to being a good team in Europe in a few years. Or maybe Atlético will put us in our place again in January when real football starts again. Either way, at least I'm excited to see it happen.