Late goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Bojan Krkic gave victory to an off-colour Barca side at home to Osasuna this evening and saw Pep Guardiola’s side move provisionally three points clear of Real Madrid at the top of the Primera Division.
Barca, and particularly Lionel Messi, had been brilliant in the last three matches as they swept aside Valencia, VfB Stuttgart and Real Zaragoza in the space of a week, scoring 11 goals in the process.
But the Catalans took a long time to get going in this match against a well-drilled Osasuna outfit and the scores remained level with 20 minutes remaining.
And with Messi not quite at his brilliant best from the past week, it was left to the much-criticised Ibrahimovic to rescue Barcelona from a potentially complicated situation.