By Samuel A. March 2, 2025
Barcelona cruised to a 4-0 win against 10-man Real Sociedad to regain the lead at the top of the LaLiga table on Sunday. Gerard Martín, Marc Casadó, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski were all on the scoresheet to put Barcelona one point ahead of second-placed Atletico Madrid, who beat Bilbao 1-0 to continue their chase at the top of the Spanish league, and three points ahead of rivals Real Madrid, who lost to Betis on Saturday in a disappointing performance.
“There is still a long way to go and everything can change very quickly,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said. “We have to keep fighting until the end because we want to win everything we can.” “Very happy with the match we played,” Araujo said. “It was important to win and become leaders again. It was a great effort by the team.”
Sociedad played a man down from the 17th minute after Aritz Elustondo was sent off with a straight red card for grabbing Barcelona forward Dani Olmo to stop a breakaway. “The early red card for Real Sociedad changed everything, it’s true, but we forced them into it. They are a very good team but today we deserved the win,” Flick said.
It was the sixth win in a row for Barcelona in the league, and the second loss in three matches for Sociedad, which stayed in ninth place.
“It was a clear red card,” Sociedad coach Imanol Alguacil said. “After that there was no game. It’s already hard 11 against 11 against them, you can imagine with a man down.”
Flick rested some regular starters ahead of the team’s Champions League match at Benfica on Wednesday in the first leg of the round of 16. “I am happy to be back at the top of the table in La Liga but now we have to focus on our next objective which is the game against Benfica,” Flick said.
