Barcelona had gotten into a big mess. He seemed out of touch with the League. They were on the ropes for 89 minutes, inferior to a Real Sociedad that excelled in football and that was left with a face of injustice. The champion suffered, lacking in attack and making losses, but he saved the furniture with a miracle in the added time. If Real does not beat Barça this time, which it has not done since 2016, it is not known when it will do so. What else should you do? He deserved it and he agreed. Araújo, in the same minute as Bellingham in the classic, made him pay against all odds. In extremis it is little.
The outcome will be studied and will give rise to all kinds of theories in Barcelona fans. You can win a game by playing terribly. Of pity. It was demonstrated by Barcelona, who had two flashes of clairvoyance when time had already expired. It was a ray of light in a monologue between Real and Barça as a mere spectator, with Ter Stegen working overtime.
The classic had left Barcelona shivering and distraught. While there are teams that know exactly their route book, such as Girona, leader, and Real Sociedad, which dominated and if they did not sweep the Blaugrana it was because they did not get the shot right, for Barça the great moment of the two little hands against Betis and Antwerp has slipped away until that good game almost seems like a mirage.
In San Sebastián he did not know where to focus the game. He protected himself too much in defense with three center backs and barely intimidated in attack with Cancelo as a false winger. The locals were ambitious and worked like clockwork, the visitors were absurd, overwhelmed and barely supported by Ter Stegen's gloves.
It was a big and important game because of the need to react. It was noticeable from the lineup with the reappearance of Koundé, the detriment of Christensen, and the ownership of Lewandowski, placing Ferran Torres, as new developments. Barcelona wanted to, based on their starting eleven, but they couldn't.
It even seemed that, like against the whites, the game seemed too long for Barcelona, when they went out onto the field they tried to preserve their deposit and let Real Sociedad do things at the start, as if they didn't want to repeat last week's mistake. But not at all. He would have liked to have the duel under control. It was not sufficiency but ineffectiveness. Imanol's men played as they pleased.
From the first minute it was like that. Literal. Because at 27 seconds Barrenetxea already had a great chance but found himself with a strong tackle from the German goalkeeper, to whom the work was piled up. Not even his team helped him because Koundé delayed the ball without looking and gave it to Oyarzabal. The goalkeeper had another saving performance to send for a corner. Kubo took it out and Merino's header sailed across the small area. Barça was not there nor was it expected. In the center of the field, where tall, waiting on the bench.
Nobody seemed reliable and there is no worse opponent against whom to be unable to give three passes in a row than this Real, so liquid and fluid with the ball, so rich in the interior game, with Kubo and Oyarzabal coming down to receive and combine naturally .
The San Sebastián team passed over last season's champion, whose only remaining capacity is his capacity for almost agonizing suffering, to stay afloat in the middle of a storm. There is only one but to Imanol's romantic bet and that is his lack of fangs. Kubo met Ter Stegen's foot and Aihen met the German's fists. Barça was so lost that their first approaches were a very high center from Lewandowski almost from the wing (sic) and two high shots from Balde and Cancelo, two wing backs. Very, very little in a first half that ended with a shot from Fermín and with João Félix asking for a penalty and surrounding the referee.
If the end of the first half was unexpected, what would happen in the second half was even more unusual. Because Barcelona remained lacking in attack, so much so that Xavi retired Lewandowski in the 57th minute, almost unprecedented, and at the mercy of Real Sociedad. Raphinha and Lamine Yamal also replaced the wingers but barely touched the balls.
But in between, Pedri also came in for Fermín and that gave some oxygen to the team with the ball while Real was running out of gas. The addition was, against all odds, Barça's moment. The Canarian left Gavi alone but Remiro jumped on him and couldn't score on almost the clearest chance of the game. It seemed that the Blaugrana had wasted their only bullet. But not. There was another. Gündogan hung a ball into the area where Imperial Araújo entered to put his head and beat the local goalkeeper. Seeing is believing. Not even the referee could imagine it since he disallowed the goal for offside until the VAR corrected him and validated it. It was a pinch of reality. Araújo's miracle redeems Barcelona and ends the San Sebastian storm.
Real Sociedad: Remiro, Traoré (Elustondo 62), Zubeldia, Le Normand, Aihen, Zubimendi, Merino, Brais Méndez, Barrenetxea (Cho 79), Kubo, Oyarzabal (Carlos Fernández 84).
Coach: Imanol Alguacil
Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Araújo, Koundé, Inigo Martinez, Balde, Gündogan, Gavi, Fermin (Pedri 57), Cancelo (Raphinha 68), João Felix (Lamine Yamal 68), Lewandowski (Ferran Torres 57)
Coach: Xavi Hernández
Stadium: Reale Arena. 37,535 spectators.
Referee: Alberola Rojas (Castilian-La Mancha).
Cards: John Felix, Brais Mendez, Inigo Martinez, Zubeldia, Zubimendi, Gavi.
Goal: 0-1 Araújo (92).
