(La Liga:)
(Real Sociedad – Barcelona)
The FC Barcelona squad traveled to San Sebastian, to the Estadio de Aneota, currently known as the Reale Arena for sponsorship purposes, Real Soceidad's ho stadium for their matchday 4 encounter.
FC Barcelona started with a similar lineup like in the Sevilla ga with minimal changes being made, the main one being Gerard Martin starting ahead of Alejandro Balde in left back.
While FC Barcelona tweaked its formation, Real Sociedad did not take any chances as they started with their best lineup for this ga.
Unlike the Catalans, the San Sebastian club started with a 4-1-4-1 formation.
Alex Remiro started in between the posts for the ho side while ahead of him stood a quadruple of Aramburu, Zubeldia, Pacheco, and Munoz in defense.
Standing as the sole pivot in this ga was the maverick midfielder who was the envy and transfer target of a lot of big clubs in Europe, Martin Zubindi.
Ahead of him was the balanced attacking quadruple of Tite Kubo, Turrientes, Olasagasti, and Sergio Goz. Ahead of them was Mikel Oyarzabal starting as the sole striker in this ga.
FWEEE!
As soon as the referee's whistle sounded, a balanced ga started in the Reale Arena as Real Sociedad surprisingly matched FC Barcelona's intensity and play in the first half of this ga.
Clearly, the ho side had a concrete ga plan to win.
To the surprise of onlookers, at so point, it was like the ho players were running FC Barcelona ragged with their imnse work rate.
Barca did not falter though as they t their intensity pound for pound, staying compact and playing their own ga.
It was an end-to-end ga throughout the first half.
The FC Barcelona attack got to shine in this ga again but among the quadruple of attacking players, one of them seed to struggle this ga.
After playing 3 straight gas consecutively since the new La Liga season started, Robert Lewandowski seed on his way to having his first stinker of the season as his age finally seed to show.
Just like any great player, age was finally catching up with the Polish striker.
His loose touches, his mis-controls, the uncharacteristic poor positioning, Lewandowski was off it this ga and it affected the rest of the Barca attack.
The remaining attackers toiled in his absence, trying to lift their ga and lift him along but they were struggling.
In the struggling was where Sam thrived.
In a ga this hard, Sam's talent finally shone through as he dominated.
When Real Sociedad got the ball and were about to go on their dangerous attacking raids, Sam was like a sledgehamr that consistently stopped the threat early before it could beco too dangerous.
In attack, he was also a nace as he consistently thread accurate passes through the tiny spaces and boxes that the Real Sociedad players left behind, unable to cover.
Despite it, the goal failed to materialize.
For the 2nd straight ga, Barcelona failed to score in the first half and just before half-ti, the Catalan visitors were stunned. Experience more tales on My Virtual Library Empire
For just one mont, the Barcelona defense was caught napping and that was all Real Sociedad needed as rising above every other player, Mikel Oyarzabal planted a firm header from a cross into the bottom left corner.
Inaki Pena dived but the ball just snuck past him and into the net.
"GOALLLL…!!!" The Reale Arena erupted!
Just like that, FC Barcelona trailed.
The first half ca to an end with Barcelona losing 1-0.
…
During half-ti, Hansi Flick had a very calm talk with his players, making a few tactical tweaks before sending them back into the pitch. Despite the tactical tweaks, the German coach did not make any substitution.
As soon as the FC Barcelona players entered the pitch, it was clear that they ca with a different energy, an energy of defiance.
"BOOOO…!!!" The ho fans quickly booed, hoping to kill their energy.
FWEEE!
It didn't matter much though because as soon as the referee's whistle sounded, FC Barcelona started a dance of Dragons.
They raised the intensity imdiately.
Bam! Bam!
Raphina, Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Sam, even Lewandowski, they all raised their level in this 2nd half as they started overwhelming Real Sociedad.
But the ho side was not caught off-guard.
Having expected Barcelona's increase in intensity in the 2nd half as they chased after the equalizer, the Real Sociedad coach cleverly changed his strategy, switching to all-out defense.
Against the rampaging Catalans, as soon as their onslaught started, Real Sociedad parked the bus in front of their defense.
The ho fans didn't react angrily to this decision by their coach though, rather, they applauded it as they cheered their team on.
In this ga, it was not just the Barca players vs Real Sociedad players; it was the Barca players vs Real Sociedad players vs the Real Sociedad fans.
Despite this, undeterred, the relentless Barca onslaught of attacks continued.
Barca attacked but a stalwart Real Sociedad defense gave them no easy path towards goal as they staunchly defended their goal.
Sam tried to take outside the box shots but clearly wary of his threat, a player was tasked to close him down imdiately he revealed his intent to take a shot.
This was another factor in his adaptation.
Having heard of his reputation in the premier league already, no club in Spain wanted to give him the spaces that he loved to wreak havoc. They've observed, studied, and dissected his ga, creating asures to best thwart him.
It was the sa thing that Kylian Mbappe faced during his early weeks and months in Spain, Sam was facing the sa treatnt.
And again, that was materializing in this ga.
Sam was playing at an elite level with his fellow attackers but against Real Sociedad's low block, the goal failed to materialize.
They were dominating in possession, chances created, shots taken, everything, but they were being frustrated because they were losing.
50 minutes passed, no goal…
60 minutes passed, no goal…
70 minutes passed, still no goal…
And that was when it happened, a tragedy.
During another FC Barcelona attack raid, Pedri held on to the ball for far too long, enabling the opposing midfielder, Martin Zubindi to steal the ball.
"…!" Instantly, the whole Barca team went into panic mode.
This was because of the player holding the ball.
Bam!
Their panic was warranted as despite Gavi quickly closing him down, Martin Zubindi calmly rotated past the Spanish midfielder, spraying a deadly pass towards the right and cutting an overzealous Barca team open.
Since most Barca players were up field, attacking and trying to score a goal to bring the ga level, that one pass dissected the full Barca defense open like a hot knife through butter.
Gerard Martin, Barca's right back was caught out of position.
But as soon as the ball was passed, the young defender panicked as he quickly engaged in a sprint, desperate to recover and make up for his mistake.
Sohow, due to help from the shadow defending of other defenders, Gerard Martin's speed won as he closed Tite Kubo down, restricting the winger to just outside the Barca 18-yard box even as other Barca players fell back.
The threat was already diffused, no need for any reckless action but in a mont of madness, as soon as Tite Kubo entered the 18-yard box, losing his head, Gerard Martin dived in on a sliding tackle.
The tackle was far from perfect as catching Kubo's ankle, he brought the Real Sociedad winger down.
FWEEEE!
The referee's whistle sounded imdiately even as he awarded a penalty to Real Sociedad in the 71st minute while showing Gerard Martin a straight red card.
The Barca players didn't even try to appeal the red card, it was just too obvious. The young right back dejectedly trudged off the field.
Barca trailed behind, and now, they got an even bigger disadvantage.
Mikel Oyarzabal stepped up to take the penalty, his last action in this ga before being taken off and he didn't miss a step, sending Inaki Pena the wrong way as he cooly slotted into the bottom left corner.
"GOALLLLL…!!!" The Reale Arena erupted again in ecstasy.
And in that mont, all hell broke loose, Hansi Flick finally lost his composure.
His team was losing 2-0!
Having decided to be conservative since, the German coach finally decided to be ruthless. He took a drastic decision, making the bold decision of taking off Lewandowski as he introduced Fermin Lopez.
It was not the substitution that was his craziest decision, rather, it was his tactical and formational change.
Hansi Flick decided to play Sam as a striker!
More precisely, a false 9.
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