Barcelona, sitting at the top of La Liga, tasted the bitterness of their second defeat of the season. In a dramatic and eventful match last night, Barcelona lost 1-0 to Real Sociedad. After the defeat, Barcelona coach Hansi Flick directly pointed the finger at the referee, claiming that a “big mistake” by the referee was the reason for their loss.
This defeat will bring some relief to Real Madrid. After suffering a crushing loss to Barcelona in El Clásico, Real Madrid had fallen 9 points behind. However, the gap has now been reduced to 6 points, with Madrid having played one match less. This means that if Real Madrid wins their next match, the points gap will shrink to just 3 points. Currently, after 13 matches, Barcelona has 33 points, while Real Madrid has 27 points, having played one match fewer.
Before the match against Sociedad, Barcelona received some bad news. One of their key players, Lamine Yamal, was ruled out due to an injury sustained in the previous match. Without Yamal, Barcelona seemed to lose their rhythm.
Throughout the game, Barcelona managed 11 shots but failed to hit the target. This was the first time in 10 seasons in La Liga that Barcelona had such a disappointing statistic. The only goal of the match came in the 33rd minute when Real Sociedad’s Sheraldo Becker scored.
After the match, the biggest talking point was the decision in the 13th minute when VAR ruled out Robert Lewandowski’s goal. Flick, speaking after the match, said, “I saw the picture, and the decision was wrong. It was a legitimate goal. Cancelling it was madness. The goal was clear, but we have to accept it. We shouldn’t blame the referee. We’re all human, and we all make mistakes. Today, the mistake was a big one.”
Along with addressing the referee’s mistake, Flick also expressed dissatisfaction with his team’s performance, saying, “We take responsibility for this loss. We are to blame. We can play better than this.” He also mentioned missing Yamal, “We are missing Lamine Yamal right now. I don’t know if he’ll be able to return properly after the international break.
