Barcelona won a big game against Real Sociedad on Sunday, beating them 4-0. This victory helped Barcelona move back to the number one spot in La Liga, which is Spain’s top soccer league.
The game got easier for Barcelona early on when a Real Sociedad player, Aritz Elustondo, got a red card. A red card means a player has to leave the game, so Real Sociedad only had 10 players left. This happened just 17 minutes into the match because Elustondo stopped Barcelona’s Dani Olmo from scoring by pulling him down. Barcelona’s coach, Hansi Flick, said the red card helped his team a lot. “There were a lot of things that helped us today, the red card but also how we played,” he told reporters.
Barcelona scored four goals. The first came after 25 minutes when Dani Olmo passed the ball to Gerard Martin, who scored his very first goal ever. Four minutes later, Olmo’s shot went off course, but his teammate Marc Casado accidentally knocked it into the goal anyway. Later, Ronald Araujo scored the third goal by heading the ball in after the Real Sociedad goalkeeper, Alex Remiro, couldn’t hold onto it. Finally, Robert Lewandowski scored the fourth goal with a smart move, pushing the ball in after a long shot from Araujo. Lewandowski, who is 36 years old, has now scored 21 goals in 25 games this season, making him the top scorer in La Liga.
Before this game, another team, Atletico Madrid, had taken first place by winning their match against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday. But Barcelona’s win put them back on top, one point ahead of Atletico. Meanwhile, Real Madrid, who are in third place, lost their game against Real Betis.
Real Sociedad started strong and almost scored, but one of their goals didn’t count because of an offside rule. Offside means a player was too close to the other team’s goal when the ball was passed to them, which isn’t allowed. After the red card, Barcelona took control. Their young star, Lamine Yamal, set up a chance for Pedri Gonzalez, but the goalkeeper stopped it. Pedri also hit the crossbar later, almost scoring again.
Flick, the coach, was happy with the win. He said, “Today we are happy with the three points and there’s a long way to go in La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League.” The three points come from winning the game—it’s how teams earn their ranking in the league. Barcelona is also playing in two other big competitions: the Copa del Rey, which is a Spanish tournament, and the Champions League, a contest between the best teams in Europe. Flick wants his team to fight hard to win all three. “We will fight for every title,” he said.
Araujo, who scored, told Movistar, “I’m very happy for our performance and it was important to win and go back to being leaders.” He’s been working hard to get back to playing regularly after hurting his knee badly earlier. “I came back from a long-term injury, I’m calm and going step by step,” he said. He also thinks having a strong team with lots of good players, not just the starting 11, is key to winning.
Real Sociedad’s Javi Lopez said the red card changed everything. “We came here to try and dominate the ball,” he said, but after losing a player, it was tough. He also thought Barcelona got lucky with some of their goals, making it even harder to compete against one of the best teams in the world.
Barcelona kept control for the last 30 minutes and almost scored a fifth goal when substitute Ferran Torres had two good chances. With this win, they’re ready for their next big game against Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday.
