Real Sociedad 2-1 Barcelona, La Liga: Recap

Barcelona’s nine-game winning streak in La Liga and their 11-game winning streak in all competitions has come to an end thanks to a 2-1 defeat to Real Sociedad at Anoeta on Sunday night. The Blaugrana played a sensational first half and could have easily clinched the win at halftime, but everything went wrong against them on the night as a combination of poor finishing, bad luck and controversial refereeing led to a loss that leaves them just two points clear at the top of the table.

Reactions & Observations

• From a pure football perspective, Barça were sensational in the first half. The Blaugrana dominated the game from start to finish and played beautiful attacking football, with quick passing exchanges in the final third that created spaces and huge chances time and time again. It was a tremendous display, but it somehow didn’t lead to any goals. Pedri and Dani Olmo each missed a giant chance, and the Catalans should have had a two-goal lead in those moments alone.
• But here’s where the non-football stuff comes in: Barça were absolutely destroyed by VAR, who made three gigantic calls that all went against Barça: the first was a foul by Olmo on Take Kubo in the buildup to Fermín López’s goal inside the first 10 minutes; the second was the most marginal offside call you will ever see against Lamine Yamal that stretched every possible limit of the semi-automated offside system, and the third was much less controversial as Yamal was clearly offside before being fouled by Zubeldia inside the box, which led to the penalty being chalked off following a review.
• So with the combination of two huge missed chances and three giant VAR calls, Barça left the door open for Real Sociedad to score with their only real opportunity of the half as Mikel Oyarzabal scored a nice volley from a cross by Gonçalo Guedes to put the visitors ahead.
• On any other night Barça would comfortably be up three or four at the break, but instead they were somehow losing and needed a big comeback in the second half to rescue at least a point.
• If VAR was Barça’s nemesis in the first half, that became Álex Remiro in the second: the Real Sociedad goalkeeper was extraordinary to begin the period, making at least four huge saves to stop Barça from scoring. He couldn’t stop Marcus Rashford’s header, though, and Barça finally found the breakthrough with 20 minutes to go.
• And then, from the ensuing kickoff, everything fell apart: Guedes put La Real ahead less than a minute after the Blaugrana equalizer, and Barça became a shell of themselves as the home team took complete control and forced Barça to make one awful mistake after another, and the Catalans were incredibly lucky not to concede a third and still be in the game going into the final 10 minutes.
• Jules Kounde should have scored the equalizer but somehow missed an open header that went off the crossbar, and even after Real Sociedad went down to 10 men thanks to a well-deserved red card shown to Carlos Soler, Barça didn’t create a true goalscoring chance and the final whistle came to end their winning streak in painful fashion.
• That’s the second straight time that a trip to Anoeta ends in a deeply frustrating defeat in which refereeing played a huge part, but Barça have only themselves to blame for not finishing the many big chances they created on the night. The performance was more than good enough to secure all three points, but sometimes it’s just not your night. And this was definitely not Barça’s night.