Osasuna shattered La Liga leaders Barcelona’s good begin to the season with an emphatic 4-2 victory on Saturday and their coach Hansi Flick mentioned he would take the blame. The Catalans gained all seven of their opening fixtures however Flick’s closely rotated facet got here badly undone in Pamplona as Ante Budimir scored a brace both facet of Bryan Zaragoza’s strike. Pau Victor had given Barca a lifeline to tug them again into the sport earlier than Budimir bagged his second from the penalty spot.
Abel Bretones added a sensational fourth from the sting of the field, earlier than Lamine Yamal pulled one again with a nice effort of his personal.
Victory would have matched Barcelona’s greatest ever begin to a league marketing campaign with eight consecutive wins, however they weren’t capable of construct on their four-point lead on second-place Real Madrid.
The Spanish champions go to Atletico Madrid, third, in a derby conflict on Sunday.
“In the primary half we made quite a lot of errors, it isn’t regular we play like this — we had quite a lot of adjustments within the group and that is possibly one motive for that,” Flick advised reporters.
“I believe it was mandatory. We had so many matches, quite a lot of gamers had so many minutes, I’ve to take care about that. This is my accountability.
“If you wish to blame somebody for this defeat then take me.”
Ahead of a Champions League match towards Young Boys on Tuesday, Flick felt he needed to shuffle his pack, particularly after Barca misplaced at Monaco of their European opener.
The coach, lacking a number of key gamers by means of harm, handed begins to inexperienced defenders Gerard Martin and Sergi Dominguez in addition to Pablo Torre in midfield and Victor in assault.
The coach rested Spain Euro 2024 starlet Yamal and Brazilian winger Raphinha amongst different common picks.
As a outcome Barcelona did not ignite within the first half and Osasuna winger Zaragoza took centre-stage.
Last season Zaragoza struck twice whereas taking part in for Granada in a 2-2 draw towards Barca, a efficiency which helped earn him a transfer to Bayern Munich.
On mortgage from the German giants, Zaragoza created the opener for target-man Budimir with a nice cross, which the Croatian nodded house with ease within the 18th minute after escaping the attentions of Dominguez.
Zaragoza completed the second himself 10 minutes later after being despatched by means of on purpose, with the winger bypassing goalkeeper Inaki Pena with a nice ball roll after which slotting into the empty web.
Barcelona complained there had been a foul on Victor within the build-up however the referee waved their complaints away.
The leaders created little themselves, with the very best opening falling to Ferran Torres. However the Spanish winger miscontrolled on the sting of the field and was shortly swallowed up by the Osasuna defence.
End-to-end
Victor pulled Barcelona again into the sport after Osasuna goalkeeper Sergio Herrera gave the ball away with a poor throw after which couldn’t hold out his early shot from distance.
With Yamal and Raphinha thrown into the fray Barcelona started to threaten more and more, though prime scorer Robert Lewandowski was taken off with 20 minutes remaining after a flat show.
Against the run of play Osasuna elevated their lead.
Dominguez, 19, scythed down Budimir within the space as he went to shoot and the striker buried the penalty.
Ruben Pena wasted an excellent likelihood to seize a fourth however Bretones made no mistake with a vicious effort from the sting of the field.
Yamal hit again brilliantly from vary and teed up Torres who struck the put up, but it surely was too little, too late.
“It’s regular there are rotations, there are quite a lot of video games, it isn’t an excuse,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri advised Movistar.
“In the second half we deserved a bit extra however we let in objectives once we have been at our greatest.”
Osasuna rose to sixth and Zaragoza mentioned his group had been decided to beat the leaders.
“We knew Barca have been an unimaginable group, they’d gained every thing and we knew we needed to get caught into it, and that is how we went on the market,” defined the winger.
“It’s a particular recreation and very nice to play in.”
Earlier Real Sociedad defeated Valencia 3-0 and Getafe gained their first recreation of the season with a 2-0 house victory over Alaves. Rayo Vallecano and Leganes shared a 1-1 draw.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
