Hansi Flick heaped reward upon the “fantastic” work carried out at La Masia after Barcelona’s kids 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 workforce have now gained seven consecutive video games in LaLiga by no less than two objectives – the primary time Barca have achieved that feat since stringing collectively eight such victories below Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde in 2017.
However the Blaugrana boss most popular to concentrate on his defenders, who restricted Osasuna to simply three photographs and 0.37 anticipated objectives (xG), in comparison with 24 photographs and a couple 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 necessary factor was the three factors. We managed the sport; in defence we did very effectively. Perhaps we didn’t have nice probabilities, however we have now the three factors,” Flick mentioned.
“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 below stress, however that’s not in our palms.
“After just a few weeks by which we suffered, we’re again. With all of the gamers near 100%, you possibly can see the flexibility of the workforce.”
Garcia accomplished 93.8% of his passes (75/80) and created two probabilities from the bottom of midfield, additionally contesting 11 duels and profitable two tackles.
Martin, in the meantime, had essentially the most touches (112) and correct passes (93) of any participant on the sector, matching Balde’s game-high 95.9% passing accuracy.
Flick mentioned: “Eric offers us stability, he performed a incredible sport. Gerard has improved rather a lot.
“And I’ve already spoken sufficient about Cuba prior to now. Taking part in at this stage at 18 years outdated is brutal.
“I’ve to congratulate La Masia for what they’ve performed with the younger gamers. It’s actually fantastic.”
Osasuna are solely outdoors the relegation zone on aim distinction, however their head coach Alessio Lisci felt the sport represented a missed alternative for his workforce.
“We now have to be indignant, we didn’t come right here on vacation, however to attain. Their first aim comes from a scenario that we had very, very labored on,” he mentioned.
“We had them the place we needed them. We have been controlling them effectively. In transition we probably generated harmful probabilities, however we needed to do extra with the ball.”