Friday, May 18th, 2012
Real Sociedad produced a stirring second-half fightback to hand Barcelona their first league defeat in seven months.
Goals from Diego Ifran and Xabi Prieto cancelled out Thiago Alcantara’s opener to dispel any lasting relegation fears for La Real.
Pep Guardiola had taken the opportunity to rest a host of his stars ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid. The Catalan coach made seven changes in all from the side that started at the Bernabeu on Wednesday, with Gerard Pique, Xavi Hernandez, Seydou Keita and two-goal hero Lionel Messi the only four to retain their place.
The home side made three changes from the 2-1 defeat in the Basque derby last weekend, a familiar foe for the Blaugrana, Raul Tamudo, returning to lead the line.
Despite the changes the Champions were on easy street in the first-half, maintaining possession with ease whilst waiting for the opportunities to arise.
Messi fired just wide and Ibrahim Afellay shot straight at Claudio Bravo in the opening ten minutes before one of the Barca cantera getting a rare start, Martin Montoya, had to replaced by Dani Alves.
The goal did eventually come for Barca, although there was a touch of fortune about it. For once Xavi over hit a pass into Messi’s feet, but as the ball rolled on Thiago pounced on it to fire in off the underside of the bar.
In a much more entertaining second period the hosts came out with a more attack minded approach. Mikel Aranburu fired just wide after an errant Jose Pinto punch had fallen for him before Bravo had to be aware to divert a long-range effort from Jeffren.
Jeffren then passed up another opportunity on the break after fine play from Messi had sent him clear. And Barca were made to pay for that profligacy when the hosts squared the game with 20 minutes remaining.
Antoine Griezmann the creator with a clever touch through for Ifran to slot cooly beyond Pinto from six yards.
Gabriel Milito then had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside and to literally add insult to injury the Argentine injured himself in the process of putting the ball in the net.
Guardiola had already reshuffled his defence with Javier Mascherano replacing Pique so Barca finished the match without a recognised centre-back as Sergio Busquets was introduced to play beside Mascherano. But it was an error from the Argentine captain that led to the winning goal.
Griezmann inducing a mistimed challenge from Mascherano and despite and awful penalty from Prieto, Pinto couldn’t manage to keep the ball from trickling over the line.
A shocked Barca pushed forward in search of an equaliser and again the best chances fell to Jeffren but he was firstly denied by a smart stop from Bravo and then fired wide after the Chilean goalkeeper had only diverted Afellay’s cross into his path.
A disappointing defeat for the visitors but one that only delays rather than threatens their title celebrations. For the home side this was the perfect result to mark a fine debut season back in the big league.
FT: Real Sociedad 2 (Ifran 70, Prieto (pen) 82) - Barcelona 1 (Thiago 29)
