Barcelona’s perfect start to the 2024-25 season ended in the eighth game of the season thanks to a 2-4 defeat away to Osasuna El Sadar Stadium on Saturday evening. Hansi Flick’s side played a terrible game, being the second-best team for most of the game against an Osasuna team that defended almost perfectly and was simply incredible on the counter-attack all evening and deservedly came out on top Blaugrana their first league defeat of the season in emphatic fashion.

FIRST HALF

Staying true to its identity as an aggressive, attacking team, Osasuna made a brilliant start to the game, pushing Barça high up the pitch, constantly winning the ball from good positions and creating plenty of danger with their quick and creative front players.

And their excellent start was rewarded with the opening goal, after Pablo Torre released the ball in midfield, the home team quickly countered and Bryan Zaragoza’s brilliant cross from the left wing hit the head of Ante Budimir, putting the home team in the lead.

Barça was nowhere to be found in the first 20 minutes and the absence of Lamine Yamal and Raphinha was keenly felt as a heavily rotating Barça side struggled to make any meaningful attacks despite Pedri’s best attempts to help his teammates get into good situations start.

The Catalans continued to fight hard and had to pay again just before the half hour mark: Pau Víctor was obviously fouled in midfield but the referee somehow didn’t rule on it, Aimar Oroz played a wonderful through ball to find Bryan’s path and the youngster rounded Iñaki Peña , before doubling the home team’s lead.

Barça finally showed signs of improvement towards the end of the half, handling the ball better and not giving the hosts easy counterattack opportunities. They also had some good moments in attack, but never managed to create a real chance.

The half-time whistle ended a terrible opening period for Barça, who had plenty of talent on the bench but needed to play much better to have a chance of a second-half comeback.

SECOND HALF

Hansi Flick made no changes at half-time, sticking with the same line-up and hoping that his half-time talk alone would be enough to spur his team to improve at the start of the final period.

Flick saw exactly what he had hoped for, as Barça came out with more pressure and much better play in midfield and attack, and Robert Lewandowski was denied a sure goal by a great save from Sergio Herrera.

However, just 60 seconds later, Herrera made a terrible mistake that allowed Barça to get back into the game by giving the ball away near their own penalty area and then failing to keep out a rather speculative shot from Pau Víctor, which went with A shot somehow hit the net from 30 meters to give his team a chance for a comeback.

Flick made two changes after the hour as Yamal and Raphinha replaced Víctor and Torre to try and capitalize BlaugranaThe momentum. However, Osasuna were still dangerous on the counterattack and Budimir wasted a huge chance straight after Barça’s substitutions as the home side showed they were not just interested in defending their lead.

The crowd was fired up and the tempo increased as Barça increased the pressure and it felt like another goal was about to happen. Ferran Torres almost scored an incredible solo goal, but Herrera made another brilliant save and the visitors seemed to inch ever closer to an equalizer in the final 20 minutes.

At this point, Flick went back to his bench and called up Alejandro Balde and Marc Casadó, but they had no time to make an impact as another Osasuna counterattack led to a crucial moment in the game: Juan Areso’s cross almost found Budimir in the goal But the striker was fouled by Sergi Domínguez and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Budimir scored for the second time of the night and Osasuna restored their two-goal lead.

The home team refused to sit idle and continued to attack mercilessly, especially against the left side of the Barça defense, as Balde repeatedly found himself outnumbered and the home team created one chance after another. And they deservedly scored a fourth goal to cap the win in style when, with five minutes left, Abel Bretones picked up the ball from Yamal on the edge of the box and fired a rocket into the bottom corner.

Yamal made up for his mistake with a spectacular goal, making the game 4-2 in stoppage time, but that Blaugrana couldn’t find a third party who could really get their comeback attempt going.

The final whistle ended Barça’s perfect start to the season and there is no doubt that they deserved to lose and played a very poor game from start to finish, with the exception of the first ten minutes of the second half.

Hansi Flick got the starting eleven completely wrong with far too many rotations, but the players on the pitch also played very badly and are partly to blame. Barça will still be at the top of the table regardless of what happens in Sunday’s Madrid derby, but this was an important reminder that there is still work to be done and that the injury crisis continues does Object.

This team desperately needs reinforcements, and the schedule isn’t going to get any easier or less busy anytime soon.

Osasuna: Herrera; Areso (Herrando 84′), Catena, Boyomo, Cruz (Vidal 84′); Ibáñez, Torró; Bryan (Bretones 77′), Aimar, García (Peña 58′); Budimir (García 77′)

Goals: Budimir (18th minute, 72nd minute), Bryan (28th minute), Bretones (85th minute)

Barcelona: Pena; Kounde, Domínguez (Fort 85′), Cubarsí, Martín (Balde 70′); Torre (Raphinha 59′), Eric, Pedri; Ferran, Lewandowski (Casadó 70′), Víctor (Yamal 59′)

Goals: Victor (53′), Yamal (89′)