Barcelona vs. Osasuna, 2-3 :(

[flywoman]

Messi's expression says it all.

La Liga is out of Barcelona's reach. I wonder whether Pep had already decided that and chose his starting line-up accordingly.

We played badly in the first half - slow build-up with sloppy passing, very little was working in the midfield. I understand saving Xavi and Iniesta for the Champions League match this week, but maybe Pep should have started Cesc, who was actually in great form last game. Our defense was weak - Valdes did his best, but Puyol seemed tired, and Pique was so bad that Pep actually pulled him off for once.

We really fought hard in the second half, though, and I honestly think we deserved to win but for the bad offside (or lack of offside) calls. Pedro was rightly replaced by Tello - the game really picked up at that point, and what a beautiful goal he gave us. Alexis played his heart out tonight and imo should have scored a hat trick and won the game for us if it hadn't been for linesman error.

As for Messi, I'm of two minds. He's been losing the ball a lot lately, and his attempts on goal have been far below his usual standards. On the other hand, he has continued making great assists every game (whether his teammates are able to take advantage of them - Cesc's header today for example - is another story). I don't know what the problem is or whether resting him would help or just demoralize him and reduce our opportunities to score, so I defer to Pep's experience on this one...

Oh well, not much time to mourn - we play Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday!