Barcelona were held to a goalless draw by bottom side SD Huesca in matchweek 32 of the 2018-19 La Liga on Saturday afternoon.

With the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie against Manchester United only a couple of days away, Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde decided to rotate his side heavily. Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was the only player retained from the 1-0 midweek win over the Red Devils, with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Gerard Pique all absent.

Ousmane Dembele and Jeison Murillo came close to opening the scoreline for Barcelona in the first half, but were denied by some fine goalkeeping from Huesca’s Roberto Santamaria. Early in the second half, the home team threatened to break the deadlock, but ter Stegen reacted well to keep Enric Gallego out, before Barcelona’s Malcom had a shot bounce off the woodwork.

Both teams pressed hard in search of a breakthrough as the game wore on, but weren’t unable to find a way through and ended up sharing the spoils. Naturally the fans had a lot to say about the game and the team selection in particular and they took to Twitter to express their views.

Most fans seemed to be of the opinion that without captain and star man Lionel Messi, the Catalans are never able to get a positive result.

Kevin Prince-Boateng was handed a rare start in the absence of Luis Suarez, who was suspended for the tie. But, the Ghanaian failed to make much of an impression, drawing a lot of ire from the fans.


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