Huesca 0-1 Barcelona: De Jong wins it on another night of missed chances

Frenkie de Jong struck the only goal of the game as Barcelona edged out Huesca 1-0 in La Liga on Sunday. 

De Jong turned home Lionel Messi's cross just before the half-hour mark as Barca made it six unbeaten to move fifth in the table. 

Barca should have scored more on the night, with Pedri, Ousmane Dembele and Lionel Messi all having good chances to wrap the game up against the league's bottom side. 

However, Ronald Koeman's side had to settle for one goal in the end and the Dutch coach will hope his side can be more effective when they travel to Athletic Club on Wednesday. 

Koeman made four changes for the game, bringing in Lionel Messi, Ousmane Dembele, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets as he returned to a 4-2-3-1 formation. 

Barça started strongly with Alvaro Fernandez making a fine save from Pedri and Messi firing wide from Alba's cross at the far post. 

The one-way traffic continued with Dembele shooting wide and having another deflected for a corner, Pedri heading a super chance over and Alba hitting the side netting. 

The breakthrough eventually arrived in the 27th minute when De Jong got on the end of Messi's brilliant cross to finally beat Fernandez. 

That looked to open the floodgates but Barca could not find a second. Messi saw a free-kick expertly saved by Fernandez and the goalkeeper kept him out again later in the game from close range. 

Dembele also should have done better when put clean through by Pedri and substitute Miralem Pjanic shot over late on. 

Huesca's chances were few and far between with Marc ter Stegen's first shot not arriving until after the hour mark, when he saved from Raf Mir's clever flick at a corner. 

Javier Ontiveros shot straight at the German after ghosting through from midfield but Barça never looked likely to give up the points despite their profligacy at the other end. 

NEW FC BARCELONA PODCAST IN ENGLISH