Match Preview : Barça VS Real Sociedad

A short preview today as tonight’s game doesn’t really mean much to us. Why’s that? Because we won the league! It’s been a long 4 years, but after a seriously impressive domestic season, the title is finally back home. After a really comfortable 4-2 win away at Espanyol, which as a result secured us the league title.  We now face Real Sociedad, live from the Spotify Camp Nou. It’s our penultimate game at our beautiful stadium, before we move into the Montjuic next season. There’s also 4 games left of the season too. Of course the last remaining games don’t mean anything, as we’ve already won the league. So the next couple of weeks is more about winding down for the summer break. But also focusing on the summer transfer window. 

Of course though, we cant just throw the towel in over the last 4 games, we still want to finish the league on a good run of form. Also we have a chance to end the season with a historic gap between us and Real Madrid. Ter Stegen is close to breaking the all time clean sheet records in the league. And Lewandowski wants to secure the pichichi in his very first season at Barça. So although the league is wrapped up, there are still a few incentives to keep the results coming. It is nice though to come into the weekend against a really good team, and not be stressed about the result. The title celebrations are happening tonight which we are all excited about, and a positive result would just be that added bonus.

A quick look at our opponents:

Real sociedad currently find themselves fighting for the  top four. Which would be an incredible achievement for the Basque side. They’re 5 points above Villarreal who are their nearest rivals and its looking pretty certain that they will secure top 4 eventually. They’re unbeaten in their last 5 games, with a 2-0 win against Real Madrid in the process. They’re an incredibly good Side, and of course its going to be a difficult game. But at least we have the league wrapped up. So we can come into this game and play with a bit of freedom and calm. Sociedad have scored 45 goals all season and have conceded 31 in the process.

Predicted Lineup:

I think over the course of the last 4 games, we’ll be seeing players get minutes who haven’t had many this season. Most notably Pablo torre, Eric garcia etc. many of them are fighting for their futures here. So again that will give them the incentive to put on a good performance. Pedri and Araujo are both left out for the game. The club did say that it was due to discomfort, but it was already planned that they’d be given a rest tonight anyways. 

Also, hopefully we will be able to see players like Chadi Riad, Estanis Pedrola and Aleix Garrido get some game time in the first team. Would’ve been exciting to see more of Lamine Yamal, but he’s currently with the Spain U17’s. It’ll be interesting to see the lineup that Xavi goes with tonight. There will definitely be a lot of experimentation. We could even see Eric Garcia in the pivot position once again.that wouldn’t surprise me at all. 

My starting 11:

Ter Stegen

Roberto-Kounde-Alonso-Balde

Torre-Busi- Frenkie

Dembele- Lewandowski- Ansu

Ryan Edwards