Lewandowski nets a birthday brace as Barcelona beat Sociedad
With Real Sociedad failing to score in the opening 10 minutes at the San Sebastián throughout the whole of the 2021/22 campaign, the home crowd were treated to an unusually rapid start in the form of a goal for each club inside six electrifying opening minutes. Barça raced into the lead after only 46 seconds, courtesy of Lewandowski’s first goal for his new club. Alejandro Baldé did all the hard work, carrying the ball the length of the pitch before picking out the 34-year-old to calmly stroke it beyond Álex Remiro from close range.
The goal may have also ensured La Blaugrana didn’t go four consecutive league matches without scoring for the first time in their 123-year history, though Real Sociedad weren’t going down without a fight. Alexander Isak was the man to level things up almost instantly, with his second career goal against the visitors, lobbing Marc-André ter Stegen, albeit with the help of a deflection off Eric García from a tight angle.
For the remainder of the first half, respective defences became much tougher nuts to crack, though normal service resumed after the break. Los Txuri-Urdin had seemingly taken the lead from a set-piece, only for it to be ruled out for Robin Le Normand’s offside interference in the build-up, and it was a sucker punch they were never able to recover from. The away side capitalised on their frustration, as Fati came off the bench to first skillfully set up Ousmane Dembélé, and then Lewandowski for his second of the night inside three minutes of each other from close range.
Fati later grabbed a goal for himself to cap off a fine substitute performance, capitalising on Lewandowski’s flicked through ball to slot under Remiro in the box. As a result, Xavi Hernández’s side keep their unbeaten H2H run dating back to 2016 intact, whilst four goals conceded at home almost halves the league-low total of nine that Real Sociedad shipped throughout the whole of last season.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Robert Lewandowski (FC Barcelona)
