Fc Barcelona Beats real Sociedad In Freezing Conditions

On Saturday night it was the turn of Real Sociedad, based in San Sebastien in the Basque country, to visit the Nou Camp to face FC Barcelona in the Spanish league. The match coincided with a widespread freeze over much of Spain and saw snow falling in Barcelona and elsewhere. Temperatures plunged to the lowest they have been in at least a quarter of a century and main roads in some coastal areas were closed due to the snow.

The cold meant that there was a fairly low turnout with just 50,000 spectators attending the match. And the team was comprised of several Barcelona B players as coach Pep Guardiola wanted to rest some of the bigger names ahead of the match against Valencia on Wednesday in the Copa del Rey; the squad has looked a little tired lately, which is attributed to taking part in the Club World Cup in December.

Early on the visitors tested Victor Valadez with a couple of a close shots but Barcelona dominated possession and were frequently inside the visitors area and after just eight minutes Messi took the ball forward and passed it to one of the B team players, Cristian Tello. Tello put the ball into the back of the Real Sociedad net to take the Catalans one nil up.

Barcelona continued to dominate possession and they had some good opportunities in the remainder of the first half, which ultimately came to nothing. After the break the visitors came on out looking like they wanted to score. However, thanks to a great save by Victor Valdes the visitors remained scoreless.

Tello had a second goal disallowed, which deflected off Alves who was offsite, but then in the 71st minute Alves found Messi inside the Real Sociedad area and he kicked the ball home to make the score 2 - 0. Just two minutes later though the visitors managed to pull one back and take the scoreline to 2 - 1.

Meanwhile Busquets picked up a nasty looking knee injury when he collided with another player and sustaining a deep gash. However, it appears that the injury may not be as serious as first thought and he may be match fit for Wednesday, when Barcelona play Valencia in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final.

Real Sociedad started the weekend in 12th place in the table but after their loss at the hands of Barcelona they are now in 14th position on the table.

By: David Leigh

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