La Liga leaders Barcelona were held to a goalless draw by basement club Huesca on Saturday as coach Ernesto Valverde made sweeping changes to his line-up ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final decider against Manchester United.
With the title practically assured after last weekend’s 2-0 win over Atletico, Valverde fielded a radically different side to the team that won 1-0 at Old Trafford in Wednesday’s first leg, making 10 changes and handing three players their league debuts.
Midfielder Riqui Puig was one of the debutants and the 19-year-old produced the best moment of an uneventful first half, picking out Ousmane Dembele with a wonderful pass but the forward dragged his shot wide.
Brazilian forward Malcom struck the post early in the second half and team mate Carles Alena missed the target from the rebound in Barca’s best spell after the interval, while substitutes Philippe Coutinho, Jordi Alba and Arthur Melo could not improve the leaders’ attacking threat when they came on.
Huesca desperately needed a win to keep up their slim hopes of avoiding relegation but they struggled to make much of an impact and stay rooted to the bottom of the standings with 25 points from 32 games.
{{/usCountry}}Huesca desperately needed a win to keep up their slim hopes of avoiding relegation but they struggled to make much of an impact and stay rooted to the bottom of the standings with 25 points from 32 games.
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