Barcelona beat Real Sociedad 3-2 at the Nou Camp to keep the pressure on Real Madrid in the chase for the La Liga title. The Blaugrana took the lead against La Real and then went on to extend it but the visitors almost came back to level the score in a frantic five-goal first half.
Barcelona are now just three points behind Real Madrid in the La Liga table ahead of the El Clasico next week. However, Los Blancos have a game in hand over their arch rivals. Here are the talking points from the game.
#1 Messi takes his tally to 45 goals with 29 in La Liga
Lionel Messi opened the scoring against Real Sociedad with a brilliant strike from 25 yards out. The Argentine star was found in some space by Luis Suarez and the mercurial forward took one touch before unleashing a brute of a shot that darted into the bottom corner of the goal. A bundled effort soon after made it a brace for the Argentine forward.
Messi has now scored 29 goals in La Liga and 45 goals in all competitions and looks well on course to hit 50 goals in all competitions again. The first goal was the standout goal of the game and Barcelona will be looking to Messi to do more damage in their most testing week of the season coming up.
#2 Luis Enrique drops Iniesta and Barcelona can’t keep a clean sheet yet again
Luis Enrique named a starting lineup without regular Andres Iniesta with an eye probably on the big games to come in recent weeks and as a result found the midfield battle difficult to win in the game. Rakitic, Andre Gomes and Sergio Busquets were overshadowed by Illaramendi and Xabi Prieto in the middle.
Illarramendi, the former Real Madrid man, had a very good game pulling the strings from midfield and only when Iniesta was brought on in the 69th minute did the tide turn towards Barcelona. Without Iniesta, Barcelona couldn’t keep more of the ball as they would have liked and only created good chances once he came on.
Barcelona’s defending this season has been rather questionable and has drawn considerable criticism. The Blaugrana have found it difficult to shut out their opposition in games. The Catalan club has managed just one clean sheet (against Sevilla) in their last eight games. They conceded two against Malaga in their last La Liga game and three against Juventus in the Champions League.
In this game, they couldn’t shut out La Real as well. Some abject defending from Barcelona led to a Samuel Umtiti own goal which gave Sociedad a glimmer of hope in the game. The defending before the goal was poor by Barcelona’s high standards. Luis Enrique must sort out his defensive woes as the club head into two crunch games against Juventus and Real Madrid in the coming week.
#3 Paco Alcacer restores a two-goal cushion but Xabi Prieto reduces it to one
Paco Alcacer has been a fringe player for Barcelona this season after his move from Valencia where he scored 29 goals in the last two seasons for his previous club. However, he had a good game against Sociedad and even found the back of the net after Messi teed him up superbly. Alcacer made no mistake by slotting the ball into Rulli’s net making the score 3-1 to the Catalan giants.
But just when the game looked dead and buried La Real’s captain Xabi Prieto finished off a delightful move with an even more delightful finish. Sociedad’s Willian chipped a ball over the top of the Barcelona defence and Xabi Prieto finished it into the bottom corner past Ter Stegen with a cool first-time effort. The scoreboard read 3-2 just before halftime with plenty to play for in the second half.
#4 Real Sociedad give a real good account of themselves in the second half
The second half was a tighter and very technical affair as both sides created chances but scored no goals. Sociedad edged possession of the ball by 51% to 49% in spells of the second half which was a rather surprising statistic given that the game was at Nou Camp. Barcelona mustered the better chances with Rakitic’s run, Messi’s penalty and Luis Suarez’s 1v1 with Rulli but they could not find another goal.
Both sides cancelled each other out as their technical players came to the fore in the second half. However, with only a few clear chances it was very different to the five-goal extravaganza in the first half. The game ended with possession stats of 53% to Barcelona and 47% to Sociedad but that was only after Iniesta came on.
#5 Barcelona maintain pressure on Real Madrid at the top of La Liga
This game was a vital victory for Barcelona as they continued to maintain the pressure on Real Madrid at the top of the La Liga table. With El Clasico coming up next week and Barcelona seeking an all-important victory to close the gap at the top of the table, the win was a necessary one. The game could’ve gone Real Sociedad’s way had they been more clinical with their possession but Barcelona won by Paco Alcacer’s third goal being the difference in the end.
The Catalans maintained Real Madrid’s lead to just three points although Los Blancos have the benefit of a game in hand over their immediate rivals for the title. It could go right down to the wire this season especially if Barcelona can win the Clasico.
