Barça 4-2 Real Sociedad by the numbers

The long wait for football to return to Camp Nou, and what’s more with fans inside the stadium too, ended on Sunday evening. Barça got off to a promising start by seeing off Real Sociedad to the tune of a 4-2 win and the win produced a number of interesting stats. Let’s take a closer look…

Big day for Braithwaite

Martin Braithwaite scored twice in the same game for the first time since joining the club. Not only that, but the Dane also provided the assist for Sergi Roberto to clinch victory with a fourth goal in injury time.

Memphis belle

There is a new hero at Camp Nou. There was expectation every time the ball went near Memphis. The Dutchman always seemed to have a new trick up his sleeve. He may not have celebrated his debut with a goal, but he certainly impressed, and the fact that he was on the end of more fouls, five, than any other player on the pitch, is testament to how much Real Sociedad struggled to keep him in check.

Memphis was not the only debutant. Eric Garcia also started the game, and Royal and Nico González both came on as substitutes.

Piqué and Eric make a fine pair

One of the finest sights was seeing the centre back partnership between Gerard Piqué and Eric Garcia looking so fluid. The Catalan dup recovered five balls each, with only Pedri (7) rating higher in that category.

Further evidence of their fine understanding is that Piqué made 28 passes to Eric, and there were 19 that headed in the other direction. They both made 74 completed passes in total, sharing the lead for that particular stat.

Sergi Roberto does it again

Sergi Roberto only got to play 943 minutes in an injury hit 2020/21, scoring just the one goal. Yesterday he came on as a late replacement for Sergiño Dest and in just 19 minutes on the pitch had already equalled his goalscoring tally for the previous campaign. 

20,384 reasons to be happy

But the most exciting thing about the game was seeing fans back at Camp Nou for the first time since the pandemic. It will still be some time before the stadium is full, for there are still severe restrictions on the stadium capacity, but 20,384 spectators did get to see Sunday’s Liga opener.