Hansi Flick heaped reward upon the “fantastic” work carried out at La Masia after Barcelona’s children shone in a 2-0 win over Osasuna.
Barca moved seven factors away from Actual Madrid on the prime of LaLiga as Raphinha struck twice within the last 20 minutes at Camp Nou, with the stress firmly on Los Blancos forward of their journey to Alaves on Sunday.
Flick’s crew have now received seven consecutive video games in LaLiga by at the very least two targets – the primary time Barca have achieved that feat since stringing collectively eight such victories beneath Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde in 2017.
However the Blaugrana boss most popular to deal with his defenders, who restricted Osasuna to only three photographs and 0.37 anticipated targets (xG), in comparison with 24 photographs and a pair of.61 xG for Barca.
Three members of Barca’s again 4 have been aged 23 or youthful, in Gerard Martin, Alejandro Balde and teenager Pau Cubarsi, whereas Eric Garcia – a fourth academy product – impressed in midfield alongside Pedri.
“The vital factor was the three factors. We managed the sport; in defence we did very properly. Possibly we didn’t have nice probabilities, however we’ve got the three factors,” Flick stated.
“I don’t assume an excessive amount of about the remainder of the groups. We wish to go to Villarreal and win. It’s good that the opponents really feel beneath stress, however that isn’t in our arms.
“After a couple of weeks during which we suffered, we’re again. With all of the gamers near 100%, you may see the flexibility of the crew.”
Garcia accomplished 93.8% of his passes (75/80) and created two probabilities from the bottom of midfield, additionally contesting 11 duels and successful two tackles.
Martin, in the meantime, had essentially the most touches (112) and correct passes (93) of any participant on the sphere, matching Balde’s game-high 95.9% passing accuracy.
Flick stated: “Eric provides us stability, he performed a incredible sport. Gerard has improved rather a lot.
“And I’ve already spoken sufficient about Cuba previously. Enjoying at this degree at 18 years outdated is brutal.
“I’ve to congratulate La Masia for what they’ve finished with the younger gamers. It’s actually fantastic.”
Osasuna are solely outdoors the relegation zone on objective distinction, however their head coach Alessio Lisci felt the sport represented a missed alternative for his crew.
“Now we have to be indignant, we didn’t come right here on vacation, however to attain. Their first objective comes from a scenario that we had very, very labored on,” he stated.
“We had them the place we needed them. We have been controlling them properly. In transition we probably generated harmful probabilities, however we needed to do extra with the ball.”
