First Division - Day 20

Sporting Gijón 0 - Barcelona 1

Sporting: Juan Pablo; Lora, Botía, Gregory, Canella; Rivera, Portilla (Matabuena 70'); Luis Morán, Carmelo (Diego Castro 57'), Miguel De las Cuevas (Barral 57'); Bilic. 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Puyol, Márquez, Piqué, Abidal; Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Ibrahimovic, Pedro (Bojan 90'). 4-3-3.

Goals: 0-1. 20. Pedro. Ran on to Iniesta through ball and curled shot past Juan Pablo.

Yellow cards: Carmelo 10', Lora 48', Pedro 58'. Portilla 61', Rivera 71', Barral 75', Messi 80', Puyol 92'.

Barcelona started the second half of the season with a 0-1 victory at Sporting Gijón, keeping up their unbeaten record in the league this current campaign. Guardiola preferred Pedro to Henry in his starting line up, and it proved a good decision as the young forward scored the only goal of the match, albeit that he may have been in an offside position when Iniesta put him through on the half hour mark. After that the visitors wasted several chances to extend their lead, Messi going close either side of half time, ex Barça B defender Botía clearing in front of goal from Ibrahimovic and Juan Pablo saving well from Pedro. The Asturians didn't really trouble Valdés until the final minutes, although there were some nervous moments late on as they pushed forward to try and save a point.