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Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman expressed his delight after his ‘fantastic’ team secured a hard-fought win over Real Sociedad in the La Liga. The Catalans were going through a rough patch ahead of the game against the Royals, who were sitting pretty at the top of the league.
Barcelona started the game well but went behind when Willian Jose scored against the run of play in the 27th minute. But, despite not being their free-flowing old self in recent times, the Catalans were determined to earn a positive result on the night. Jordi Alba kick-started the comeback, scoring the equalizer in the 31st minute to draw his team level.
Barcelona continued to knock at the door and their efforts finally paid off in the 43rd minute when Frenkie de Jong gave his team the lead, after a quick VAR check. The Catalans continued their dominance after the break and could have even doubled their lead but were unfortunate not to score.
Real Sociedad did threaten to draw level on a couple of occasions, but Barcelona showed great desire to snatch the win. And their manager was very impressed with his team’s will to keep going till the final whistle.
This is the Barcelona I want to see, says Ronald Koeman
Speaking after the game, the Barcelona manager hailed his players’ attitude and work ethic,
"This is the team I want to see. Every player played out of their skin. The biggest difference was our play without the ball today, and Messi worked very hard in that respect, pressing a lot, and so did everyone else."
Koeman also pointed out that Barcelona should have scored more goals in the first half, saying:
"That was the attitude we have to have when we don’t have the ball. The first half was fantastic, we should have scored more goals. We were intense, we put them under a lot of pressure and we ran ourselves into the ground."
The Barcelona manager was especially impressed by his team’s ball recovery on the pitch and said that they deserved to win.
"Real Sociedad are excellent on the ball but we kept robbing it off them, we pressed them so well. It was an open game because our opponents know how to play very well but the game belonged to us and it was a deserved triumph," Ronald Koeman concluded.
Barcelona welcome Valencia to the Camp Nou for their next La Liga fixture and Koeman will be hoping that his team can maintain the momentum.
