Barcelona – Barcelona won a 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad in the La Liga match at Camp Nou. This incision made El Barca slowly begin to return to the top of the La Liga standings.
Playing at home, the Blaugrana fell behind first after Willian Jose broke into Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s goal in the 27th minute. However, after that Barcelona was able to show a revival.
After equalizing thanks to Jordi Alba’s beautiful goal in the 31st minute, Barcelona turned ahead with Frenkie de Jong’s goal in the 43rd minute despite being ruled out and then again approved by VAR.
Several important points can also be taken from the victory that Barcelona won when they hosted Real Sociedad. The following is a full review.
Ronald Koeman’s Fruit Tactic
Unlike the previous matches, in this match Ronald Koeman installed a 4-3-3 formation and made Frenkie de Jong more active in helping attacks.
Barcelona also appeared very dominant, especially in the first half. Although they conceded, the hosts were able to turn things around before halftime.
Interestingly, Barcelona’s two goals were born not from their attackers, but from Jordi Alba who was active in helping the attack from the left side and De Jong who now plays more up.
Jordi Alba’s Slick Performance
One of the main factors why Barcelona was able to beat Sociedad was due to the impressive performance shown by Jordi Alba on the left side.
In addition to scoring goals with a curved shot using his right foot, Alba also played a role in sending a crossing which was perfected into a second goal by De Jong.
Alba was also active in terrorizing the Sociedad defense and almost providing an assist in the second half. Unfortunately Antoine Griezmann’s final finish failed to become a goal.
Lionel Messi the Inspirator
Even though he did not list his name on the scoreboard. Lionel Messi remained the inspiration for Barcelona’s victory through his good performance throughout the match.
Messi, who moved more from the second line. Repeatedly put the Sociedad defense at a loss when trying to stop La Pulga’s movement.
Judging from the statistics, Messi is very impressive with four successful dribbles, and fired three shots and two key passes.
Impressive Back Line Duet
In this match, Koeman made a bold and surprising decision by installing a pair of young defenders at the back, namely Ronald Araujo and Oscar Mingueza.
Amazingly, Araujo and Mingueza also succeeded in paying Koeman’s trust through their convincing and solid performance in matches against teams that rely on high pressing.
Araujo himself was believed to play for the full 90 minutes. While Mingueza appeared until the 79th minute before being replaced by Clement Lenglet.
Back on the Champion’s Path
The victory over Sociedad propelled Barcelona to fifth in the La Liga standings with a value of 20. The Blaugrana are still six points behind the top three teams.
Barcelona clearly has a very open opportunity to poke back into the top flight and enliven the championship competition.
After hobbling at the start of the season. Barcelona are now starting to find their way and are ready to reclaim the La Liga trophy from Real Madrid.
