PREVIEW: FC Barcelona v Real Sociedad
Barça host Real Sociedad this Saturday at the Camp Nou (6.30pm, CET) with the objective of getting three much-needed points after the loss in El Clásico. One point behind Los Blancos in the standings, Quique Setién's squad will fight hard to regain the leadership of LaLiga.
The Rival
Real Sociedad are in great form and qualifed for the Copa del Rey final this Wednesday against Mirandés. In the league, they're in sixth place with 43 points, only two behind Getafe who find themselves in the Champions League places. Imanol Alguacil's players have won four of their last five home games - three in a row - although away from the Reale Arena the dynamics have not been so good: only one win in the last four. However, they are the fifth best team away from home in the league overall this season, taking 17 out of 36 points.
In their last league game, Real Sociedad defeated Valladolid 1-0 with a goal from Adnan Januzaj, although the Basque side's most in-form striker is Brazilian forward Willian José, with eight goals in 24 appearances this season. Real are the third highest scoring team in the entire domestic competition, with 43 goals, (19 fewer than Barça), however, the Catalans and the Basques share records on the defensive side. The two are both in seventh place in the table in terms of goals conceded (31), a figure that could change this Saturday.
The last precedent
The last time Barça and Real met was on December 14, 2019. On that occasion, the blaugranes took an away point back to Catalonia. For the last two decades at the Camp Nou, the results against Saturday's opponents speak for themselves: 21 Barça wins in the last 21 games played at the stadium - keeping a clean sheet in 12 of them. In fact, Real Sociedad have only won three of 72 league appearances at Camp Nou, three out of 79 if all competitions are counted.
Interesting stats
- The last time Real Sociedad scored at the Camp Nou in the league was in April 1995 (1-1).
- Barça haven't lost in their last 25 games as the home side in the league (23 wins and 2 draws), and have only failed to score in one of these (0-0 in December 2019 against Real Madrid).
- Leo Messi has directly participated in 24 goals in his last 23 games against Real Sociedad in all competitions (15 goals and 9 assists).
- Real Sociedad are 2 points behind the Champions League positions. The last time they played in the Champions League was the 2013/14 season, when Antoine Griezmann was part of their squad.
The squad
Quique Setién has called up 18 players for this match: Ter Stegen, N. Semedo, Piqué, I. Rakitic, Sergio, Messi, Neto, Lenglet, Griezmann, Jordi Alba, Braithwaite, F. De Jong, Vidal, Umtiti, Junior, Riqui Puig, Collado and Ansu Fati. The quartet of Arthur, Suárez, O. Dembélé and S. Roberto are all out injured.
Service information for members
The game against Real Sociedad will be the first in which Barça members will only be able to access the stadium with their new 2020 card.