Reigning champions Barcelona secured a comeback win over Real Sociedad to maintain their 100 per cent record to start the La Liga season.
Barcelona came back from being a goal down to beat Real Sociedad 2-1 at the Anoeta Stadium on Saturday to maintain their winning start to the 2018-19 La Liga campaign.
The Catalans were pegged back very early in the game as Aritz Elustundo put the home team ahead after just twelve minutes. Sociedad continued to threaten the Barca goal but a few solid stops from goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen kept them in the game before Luis Suarez reinstated parity capitalizing on a mistake from Geronimo Rulli in the 63rd minute.
And just three minutes later, Barcelona were ahead, after another error from goalkeeper Rulli allowed Ousmane Dembele to volley home the second goal. Sociedad came close to equalizing late on through Juanmi, but the current champions held on to clinch their fourth win of the season and move to the top of the La Liga table.
There were a few strange selections made by manager Ernesto Valverde for the game, dropping Sergio Busquets and Philippe Coutinho in favour of Sergi Roberto and Rafinha Alcantara and fans weren’t exactly thrilled by the move, while they also questioned the manager’s tactics.
lucky today..very lucky.. terribly choice to start with rafinha and s.roberto for midfield area..
— FootballLife (@_nameless_02) September 15, 2018
Sergi Roberto is decent as a right back but in midfield he doesn’t offer what a Barcelona midfielder should offer. Why Valverde plays him there – while leaving Arthur out of the squad – is a big question mark.
— Barca Universal (@BarcaUniversal) September 15, 2018
Barcelona can't win the Champions league with this guy as coach.
— OLU LOCO (@tope414) September 15, 2018
I'm totally speechless. I never saw #fcbarcelona at this level. No tactic what so ever. Thanks to Valverde they are playing the most static gameplay. This guys does not know what is he doing
— lxsameer (@lxsameer) September 15, 2018
This @FCBarcelona team will only get worse with time if Valverde stays. He is continuously, playing players out of position and making wrong substitutions. Killing the tiki-taka and Barcelona play of style. #ValverdeOut @RayHudson
— Vaibhav sharma (@Vaibhav7447) September 15, 2018
Change the whole midfield ffs . Messi is playing as a CB . Bring on Busi , Coutinho and Vidal
— Roach?? (@Roach1119) September 15, 2018
For me, Coutinho shouldn't miss a single Barcelona game. He should start every single one that matters and only rest when he genuinely needs to. Otherwise, his name should be in every starting lineup. No Coutinho means being bored to death
— Ahmad (@ahmadf_o) September 15, 2018
Messi gets the goals, the praise, the headlines – and that's fair because he's the best. But take Sergio Busquets out of this Barcelona team and it is not nearly as good. He's so, so important.#RealSociedadBarça
— Ben Hayward (@bghayward) September 15, 2018
Match Analysis Thread:
So first of all, the lineup was a total disaster especially for game at Anoeta just after the international break.
Valverde could have given Lenglet a chance and rotated Umtiti but he decided to play a midfield which has never ever played with each other.— Nishant (@CuleNet) September 15, 2018
However, it was that man Ousmane Dembele again who got the Catalans over the line, just like he did in the Spanish Super Cup final at the start of the season and had then fired them home on a difficult playing surface against Real Valladolid. It wasn’t the most flawless of the displays from the Frenchman, but he is starting to prove his worth to the club in his second season.
4 – Ousmane Dembélé has won more points with his goals than any other player in La Liga this season (three goals, four assists). Rescuer. pic.twitter.com/GUD7FAtPyl
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) September 15, 2018
Better than Pele
Ousmane dembele ?— An Oxygen Thief (@Cshir_sapkota) September 15, 2018
Ousmane Dembele for Barça:
17/18 – 4 goals in 24 games.
18/19 – 4 goals in first 5 games.
This is his season pic.twitter.com/VQS0NZa4Hs
— Messi World (@MessiWorId) September 15, 2018
To think they wanted to sell Ousmane Dembele..??
— Teboho Makhoahle (@Tebza_FS) September 15, 2018
Ousmane Dembélé scoring in his third consecutive match. The man is quality, no doubt about it. #RealSociedadBarça #LaLiga
— (((Nader Hussein))) (@NaderHussein10) September 15, 2018
Ousmane Dembele is living up to his 140 mill price tag and more this season 5 goals already… there’s a new 11 in Barca and he doesn’t dive
— Sean Goodwin (@RealSeanGoodwin) September 15, 2018
Ousmane Dembele is seriously turning up the heat this season. He has been so clutch. What a player
— Micah Fanimo ⚽️ (@MixahFanimo) September 15, 2018
We can’t ignore the fact that Ousmane Dembele is on form???
Lets give the lad some credit #RealSociedadBarça pic.twitter.com/KjkRVm55jj— ?UNCLE_JOVIE? (@jovi_london) September 15, 2018
