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| Real Sociedad 1-1 Barça – Match Report |
The curse continues as FC Barcelona once again failed to pick up all three points away from home against Real Sociedad in their 8th try after they were held to a 1-1 draw at the Anoeta by the Basque side.
That is a poor choice of words by the way as Barça were outplayed from start to finish by Eusebio’s men so it will be more accurate to say Barça held Real Sociedad to a 1-1 draw as the result was totally undeserved for the visitors. Lionel Messi cancelled out Willian Jose strike to share the spoils in a game Barça put up one if their worst performances in years.
The last time Barça won at the Anoeta was in 2007 and that didn’t look like it was going to change as Real Sociedad started to dominate from the first minute, pressing Barça high up the pitch, leaving Luis Enrique’s men with no space to breathe and they looked very nervous early on.
Real Sociedad came close on numerous occasions with Xabi Prieto heading wide with a chance in the first half. La Real registered 8 shots to Barça’s 0 before Suárez had one off target. Barça lost all possible stats in the first half including ball possession and they were extremely lucky to go into halftime at 0-0.
Barça started the second half far better than the first and Neymar forced Rulli into making a wonderful save to keep out his curling free kick. Just when Barça looked to be getting into the game, their hearts got broken as a Mascherano made a mistake to allow Vela take a shot that was saved by Ter Stegen but Willian Jose was on hand to head in the rebound which Piqué should’ve done better to keep out.
Their lead didn’t last long though. Neymar got the ball on the left and did well to make a sublime run whilst beating his markers before finding Messi in space, allowing the Argentine to slot in a low shot pass Rulli.. 1-1 and 30 minutes left.
Real Sociedad continued to dominate and they got the ball in the back of the net as Juanmi netted off a rebound after Vela’s shot came off the crossbar, however, the goal was ruled out for offside but replays showed Juanmi was well onside.
Denis Suarez came close to giving Barça the winner as he combined well with Messi but saw his shot cleared off the line. Carlos Vela then had a beautiful shot hit the post, leaving Ter Stegen rooted to the spot. Barça were lucky to get a point and are now six points behind Real Madrid with 13 games played.