Barcelona take three points for the first time, Lewandowski scores his debut against Real Sociedad

In the second round of the Spanish La Liga, Catalan FC Barcelona visited the Reale Arena, home of Real Sociedad, where Barcelona traditionally thrive. Xavi’s side beat the home side convincingly 4-1 after a great second half.

While home side Real managed a slim 1-0 win against Cadiz in the first leg, the visitors from Catalonia dropped two points in the opening round of the new league season, only drawing with Vallecano at Camp Nou.

All of Xavi’s charges had a lot to make up for, especially the sharpshooter Robert Lewandowski, who was the subject of criticism after his lacklustre performance in the first leg.

The match started with a bang and after just 46 seconds the Polish forward scored his first competitive goal for the Blaugranas. However, the home side’s Alexander Isak was not to be intimidated in a duel of strikers and he countered with an accurate strike in the 6th minute.

Nothing significant happened to change the score until the end of the first half and both opponents went into the cabins with an open 1-1 scoreline.

The second half definitely did not start at the pace seen from the first minute of the first half and San Sebastian had to wait a good twenty minutes for interesting scoring opportunities.

In the 64th minute, manager Xavi Hernandez resorted to a double substitution, which brought striker Ansu Fati on to the pitch with the number ten. He was a key factor in the outcome of the match.

First, after two minutes on the pitch, he found his feet brilliantly and assisted Dembelé’s goal with a spectacular cross, then two minutes later he was lucky to put the ball in Lewandowski’s path and Barca were two goals ahead.

Fati finally crowned his performance in the 79th minute when he was lucky to get the ball in the opponents’ penalty area and calmly cleared the ball past goalkeeper Remiro.

Barcelona gave a glimpse of just how dangerous a team they can be in the second leg and the shooting impotence of last season seemed to be forgotten.

Source: Livesport