A final hectic match for the 13th day of La Liga. Traveling to Real Sociedad, FC Barcelona had the opportunity this evening to widen the gap and push their runner-up, Real Madrid, to 9 points. The club from the Spanish capital, winner on Saturday against Osasuna (4-0) thanks to a hat-trick from Vinicius Junior, still has, as a reminder, a late match to play against Valencia. For its part, the Basque club is experiencing a more difficult period, and was in a low twelfth place with 15 points before this match. A victory was therefore almost imperative for Imanol Alguacil’s men, in order to try to get back into European places.
The Blaugranas thought they were starting their game in the best possible way. After a serious and diligent start, Robert Lewandowski, thanks to a nice pass from Frenkie de Jong, broke through the defense and sent his ball into the back of the net (13th). However, after intervention by the VAR, his achievement was invalidated by the referee for a very slight offside position. A little more difficult after this refusal, Barcelona left the initiative to Sociedad. The Txuri-Urdinak took advantage and opened the scoring after half an hour of play. Exploiting a poor alignment of the Barça defense, Sheraldo Becker struck in the corner of the cage and scored (33rd, 1-0 ). Invigorated by this goal, Real Sociedad even almost doubled the lead before the half-time whistle. Led by a leggy Takefusa Kubo this evening, Mikel Oyarzabal narrowly missed the target, on a right-footed volley (45th+1).
Barcelona asphyxiated by their opponent
Returning from the locker room, the locals continued to maintain the pressure on Hansi Flick’s team. Oyarzabal missed a good opportunity in the 51st minute, forcing Inaki Pena to make a good save. A few minutes later, Becker also missed another opportunity to double the lead for his team (53rd). At the hour mark, FCB had still not had a shot on target. Ander Barrenetxea continued his efforts and landed a shot which passed a few centimeters from the left post (72nd). Kubo and Oskarsson also had good chances in the moments that followed.
In the final seconds, Barcelona tried to come back to score. Without success. An important victory for the Basque team which had not beaten FC Barcelona since April 9, 2016. Real Sociedad thus moved up to 8th place with 18 points. For its part, Barcelona, undefeated since September 28, leaves this evening with a bad operation. The Catalans still remain leader of the Championship with 33 points. The absence of Lamine Yamal will probably have weighed on the Blaugranas’ performance today.
