Barcelona subjected followers to some of the uninspiring performances of the Xavi period as they someway escaped with a 1-0 victory over Actual Sociedad on Saturday night.
Sociedad have been on high all through as Barcelona supplied embarrassingly little in assault, with the Catalan aspect as an alternative spending loads of time holding on in defence.
It took till second-half stoppage time for Barcelona to point out any actual attacking impetus and Ronald Araujo beat the offside entice to move residence and bail his aspect out.
How the sport unfolded
Sociedad got here out scorching and Marc-Andre ter Stegen wanted to make a powerful save to disclaim Ander Barrenetxea after just some seconds.
That set the tone for the opening phases, with Barcelona nicely beneath their finest and counting on Ter Stegen to maintain the rating degree. Xavi’s aspect seemed torpid at each ends of the sphere and have been shedding the possession battle because the clock ticked over to half-hour.
The dearth of attacking spark was significantly alarming for Barcelona, who watched as Sociedad punished their sloppy play and threatened to open the scoring time and time once more. Xavi can have been relieved to get into half-time degree.
Ter Stegen saved nicely from Brais Mendez because the second half kicked off, earlier than Takefusa Kubo fizzed into the aspect netting with a strike that was finally pulled again for offside anyway.
Sick of his aspect’s poor efficiency, Xavi known as on Pedri and Ferran Torres shortly earlier than the hour mark in an try to alter something, however the latter’s first involvement noticed him run the ball straight out of play.
Raphinha despatched a timid free-kick on to the roof of the web however their finest likelihood of the sport fell to Gavi in stoppage time. The midfielder discovered some area within the field however his low strike was nicely stopped by Alex Remiro, who had barely been concerned up till that time.
One way or the other, Barcelona escaped with all three factors as Ilkay Gundogan’s cross was headed residence by Ronald Araujo within the 93rd minute. The defender fortunately accepted the on-field referee’s verdict that he had strayed offside, just for VAR to intervene and accurately award the objective.
GK: Marc-Andre ter Stegen – 7/10 – A extremely spectacular displaying in objective. Needed to be alert from the opening second because the poor defence in entrance of him repeatedly left him uncovered.
CB: Ronald Araujo – 7/10 – Some very uncomfortable moments early on as he was dragged out large. Finally recovered and impressed within the second half. Took his objective nicely.
CB: Jules Kounde – 6/10 – Lacked composure in possession. Stepped up within the second half as Sociedad continued to roar forwards.
CB: Inigo Martinez – 7/10 – Booed relentlessly by the followers of his outdated aspect however was comfortably Barcelona’s finest defender.
RM: Joao Cancelo – 4/10 – Positively not a winger. His attacking influence was very restricted and he clearly misplaced his head in the direction of the tip of the primary half with a annoyed foul.
CM: Ilkay Gundogan – 4/10 – Marked into oblivion however Gundogan is meant to be higher than this. Sluggish in possession and poor along with his passing. A pleasant cross for Araujo’s winner however that does not gloss over what was an in any other case atrocious displaying.
CM: Gavi – 5/10 – Sometimes glorious work fee however Gavi merely had an excessive amount of to do in midfield. Tried to cowl each blade of grass however was usually out of place as a result of he was making an attempt to do an excessive amount of.
LM: Alejandro Balde – 4/10 – Made the occasional good run as he tried to really do one thing, nevertheless it wasn’t usually sufficient.
AM: Fermin Lopez – 4/10 – Could not get into the sport in any respect. Credit score to Sociedad’s midfield for swarming him always.
ST: Robert Lewandowski – 2/10 – His poor urgent contributed to Sociedad’s consolation on the ball. Did not get any service in assault however did not do sufficient to assist his teammates discover him anyway. Hooked early within the second half, which tells you the whole lot it’s worthwhile to know.
ST: Joao Felix – 2/10 – An embarrassing try and win a first-half penalty summed up a bitterly irritating efficiency from Felix.
Substitutes
SUB: Ferran Torres (57′ for Fermin) – 5/10
SUB: Pedri (57′ for Lewandowski) – 5/10
SUB: Lamine Yamal (69′ for Felix) – 6/10
SUB: Raphinha (69′ for Cancelo) – 5/10
Subs not used: Inaki Pena (GK), Ander Astralaga (GK), Marcos Alonso, Andreas Christensen, Oriol Romeu, Marc Casado
Supervisor
Xavi – 2/10 – This formation was the mistaken name. So, so poor. Took Xavi far too lengthy to alter issues and he was finally bailed out by a late objective.
