Barca Open 14-Point Lead As Real Crumble At Sociedad
03 May, 2023
FC Barcelona 1-0 Osasuna
FC Barcelona continued their charge towards the LaLiga title after defeating Osasuna 1-0 win at the Camp Nou.
Blaugrana head coach Xavi Hernandez went with the same side that started the big win over Real Betis over the weekend, as 15-year-old Yamine Lamal was named on the bench once again.
Osasuna have not been good travellers to the Camp Nou in recent years, having lost eight of their last nine encounters against Barcelona in the Spanish top-flight.
Osasuna's hopes of securing a maximum points suffered a blow on 26 minutes when they were reduced to ten men after Jorge Herrando was shown a straight red for pulling down Pedri, who was through on goal.
Xavi was then forced to make a change a few minutes later when Gavi was unable to recover from an earlier knock and was replaced by Ansu Fati in the attack.
The second half was more of the same for the home side, who dominated for large parts of the stanza but were left frustrated by Osasuna shot-stopper Aitor Fernandez.
Read More : Misfiring Barca Move 13 Points Clear Of Real
With the game seemingly headed for a draw, veteran full-back Jordi Alba popped up with the winning goal in the 85th minute after getting on the end of Frenkie de Jong's knockdown to fire into the bottom corner.Real Sociedad 2-0 Real Madrid
Real Madrid's title hopes continue to fade away after suffering a 2-0 defeat to Real Sociedad at the Reale Arena.
With one eye on Saturday's Copa del Rey final, Los Blancos coach Carlo Ancelotti rested Karim Benzema while Vinicius Junior and Eduardo Camavinga missed out through suspension.
Sociedad come into the encounter winless in their last seven league matches against Madrid, with their last win coming in the 2018/2019 campaign.
The first half belonged to the home side though, as they went closest with a powerful header from Martín Zubimendi that crashed against the crossbar while Thibaut Courtois was also called upon to make a couple saves.
Los Blancos, meanwhile, barely looked like themselves in the opening 45 minutes as the front-three of Rodrygo, Marco Asensio and Mariano Diaz were kept quiet in the final third.
Sociedad got the breakthrough two minutes after the break when former Real youngster Takefusa Kubo bundled the ball home from close range after some good work by Alexander Sorloth.
It went from bad to worse for Los Blancos, who were reduced to ten men on 61 minutes when Dani Carvajal was sent off after picking up his second yellow card.
The home side went on to seal the win with five minutes left on the clock as David Silva played in Barrenetxea, who calmly slotted into the bottom corner for his third league goal of the season.
Source: www.snl24.com
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