Last Sunday, Barcelona suffered a heavy defeat to now league-leaders Girona. It was a painful match because Xavi's team got outgunned in front of the home crowd in a match that, if won, would've put Blaugrana straight back into the title race. Alas, it was not to be.

However, the narrative of that loss does not match what the numbers suggest; according to the data, Barcelona registered more shots (28 vs 15), more expected goals (4.41 vs 3.04), more positional attacks (37 vs 23) and dominated several other categories as well. They also missed all five of their 'big chances' while Girona only missed two, capitalising on the rest.

So was finishing truly the reason Barcelona lost that game? Let's explore it.