Barcelona suffered an surprising 2-1 defeat to 10-man Actual Sociedad, lacking out on an opportunity to regain a four-point lead within the LaLiga summit conflict.
On the Estadio Municipal de Anoeta, the place Gonzalo Guedes scored the profitable objective, coach Hansi Flick’s workforce had three objectives canceled and hit the picket field 5 instances, ending their profitable streak at 9.
La Actual appeared like that they had taken the lead throughout the first minute, however Carlos Soler’s highly effective end was chalked off for offside.
Fermín López and Lamine Yamal additionally had objectives on the different finish dominated out for offside following a VAR assessment, whereas Frenkie de Jong was additionally denied by the linesman’s flag.
The hosts broke the impasse within the thirty second minute with Mikel Oyarzabal’s gorgeous volley from Guedes’ cross.
Barça had been then denied a penalty in first-half stoppage time after Yamal was deemed to have missed offside through the build-up, and Actual Sociedad goalkeeper Alex Remiro transformed after the break to transform Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski.
The guests lastly equalized within the seventieth minute when Yamal’s cross was tucked in by Marcus Rashford, however La Actual regained the lead inside 60 seconds when Guedes volleyed dwelling after a goalmouth scramble.
Barça scored once more with a header from Jules Kounde, and though Soler acquired a second yellow card for a foul on Pedri, the house aspect had been lowered to 10 males however held on for a hard-earned victory.
5- Barcelona have grow to be the second workforce in Europe’s prime 5 leagues to attain 5 instances in a recreation and nonetheless lose, after Brighton & Hove Albion vs. Manchester United in September 2020 (for the reason that 2006/07 season). San Sebastian.#RSO#Barcelonapic.twitter.com/rhx32z2YkF
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) January 18, 2026
Information report: Actual Sociedad are fortunate
Pellegrino Matarazzo turns into the fourth Actual Sociedad supervisor this century to keep away from defeat in his first three La Liga video games, following Roberto Olave, Reynal Denouex and Imanol Alguacil.
Nevertheless, it is no exaggeration to say that the hosts had been blessed with a component of luck, with an anticipated objectives (xG) of 1.01 in comparison with the opposition’s 3.69 and a possession fee of simply 27.3%.
In actual fact, Barça turned the second workforce in Europe’s prime 5 leagues to hit the woodwork 5 instances in a recreation and nonetheless lose, after Brighton did the identical factor in opposition to Manchester United in September 2020.
