Barcelona – Real Sociedad

Barcelona will play boldly. Waiting for an open match?

On Monday, 13 May, Barcelona will play at home against Real Sociedad. The Catalans are unexpectedly fighting for second place, which will be very important for the team. The secret is the qualification for the Super Cup of the King. Real Sociedad is also motivated. The club needs points to qualify for the Europa League, not the Conference League. Barcelona suffered a very painful defeat against Girona. The Catalans were cleanly defeated by their opponents, conceding four goals. Surprisingly in the press again appeared rumours that the management is once again considering Xavi's resignation. And only a week has passed since the press conference, where the coach was confirmed for next season. The good news for Barcelona is Lewandowski's performance. The Pole scored four goals in two games. At the same time, the quality of defensive play remains very low. If you take the last four meetings, Barcelona has one of the worst defences in La Liga. This is confirmed by advanced statistics - the club allows opponents to create an average of two chances per match. It would be nice to blame injuries for such a mini-crisis, but such a link is nowhere near. The team is performing optimally in defence, with Araujo and Cubarsi linking up, and Cancelo and Kunde on the flanks. Plus, there are questions about ter Stegen. Obviously, the goalkeeper is not having an ideal finish to the season. Real Sociedad rectified the situation at the end of the championship by dropping out of the cup tournaments. The team objectively lacked the clip for a decent performance on three fronts. In a quiet schedule, Real Sociedad is very stable and goes at the level of its current sixth place: in the last seven rounds managed to score 14 points. The club lost only to Real Madrid. After meeting with the champion, the team defeated the stalled Las Palmas by a huge margin. It is important that the Basques do not change their style. The club dominates precisely by controlling their opponents. That is, against Las Palmas they quietly won the match on the total less. The Basques have an obvious dynamic of draws: only one match out of the last six was a top-flight game. The injury situation remains unpleasant. Subeldia, Subimendi, Tierney and Traore will definitely not play in the match against Barcelona. At least three players could be in the starting combination. Another big disadvantage is Takefusa Kubo's tremendous slump. The Japanese has almost no productive action since the Asian Cup. Bookmakers on the background of Sociedad's series on the total less give a cautious total of 2.5 goals for this meeting. Barcelona under pressure will be forced to go forward. A draw in this game will not suit the Catalans. In recent face-to-face matches, the teams have not had a strict pattern of totals. The top was played as much as the bottom.