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First Division - Day 21

Barcelona 5 - Osasuna 1

Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Dani Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano; Xavi (Fàbregas 66'), Busquets (Alex Song 73'), Thiago; Pedro (Alexis 60'), Messi, David Villa. 4-3-3.
Osasuna: Andrés Fernández; Marc Bertrán, Miguel Flaño (Rubén 68'), Arribas, Nano; Lolo, Raoul Loe; Cejudo (Puñal 46'), Oier, De las Cuevas (Masoud 46'); Llorente. 4-2-3-1.

Goals:
1-0. 11. Messi. Controlled Xavi's pass inside area and rounded Andrés to score.
1-1. 24. Raoul Loe. Latched on to Marc Bertrán cross and fired shot past Valdés.
2-1. 28. Messi (penalty). After Arribas blocked Adriano's cross with arm in area.
3-1. 41. Pedro. Steered shot wide of keeper after Dani Alves crossed from right.
4-1. 56. Messi. Picked up pass from David Villa and dribbled round keeper.
5-1. 58. Messi. Got ahead of defence to connect with Adriano pass and score.

Yellow cards: Adriano 12', Arribas 17', 27', Oier 50' / red cards: Arribas 27'.

Barcelona recovered their eleven point lead at the top of the table after thrashing Osasuna 5-1 on Sunday evening. After their defeat against Real Sociedad last weekend there were some doubts as to whether their form was faltering, but within just over ten minutes gone Messi picked up Xavi's pass to dummy past Andrés and open the scoring. Raoul Loe did make it all square midway through the first half after Marc Bertrán's cross deflected to him, but four minutes later Arribas got himself sent off after picking up a second yellow card for blocking Adriano's shot with his arm in the area, and Messi stepped up to drill home the resulting penalty. Shortly before half time Pedro made it three, although it probably shouldn't have counted as Dani Alves was clearly in an offside position when he picked up Xavi's pass in the build up. And after the restart Messi scored two more in as many minutes to take his total for the season in the league to 33 goals, the first after picking up an assist from David Villa, and the second after Adriano put him through. Business as normal, and last week's small set-back has already been forgotten.