Barça vs Sociedad: Preview
Following a great night in Europe, Barça hope to get back to winning ways in La Liga to get three points closer to the title
FC Barcelona (1st, 74pts) vs Real Sociedad (10th, 41pts)*
*Points and positions at the time of writing on Friday
Competition/Round: 2018-19 La Liga, Matchday 33
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Rafinha, Thomas Vermaelen, Jean-Clair Todibo, Jeison Murillo, Kevin-Prince Boateng (out)
Sociedad Outs & Doubts: David Zurutuza (out), Igor Zubeldia, Asier Illarramendi, Kévin Rodrigues, Adnan Januzaj, Héctor Moreno (doubt)
Date/Time: Saturday, April 20, 2019, 8.45pm CET (Barcelona), 7.45pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 2.45pm ET, 11.45am PT (USA), 12.15am IST (India, Sunday)
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Referee: Pablo González Fuertes (cool, new guy!)
How to watch on TV: beIN SPORTS (USA & Canada), Eleven Sports 1, ITV 4 (UK), SuperSport 7 (Nigeria), Movistar Partidazo (Spain), others
How to stream: beIN SPORTS CONNECT (USA & Canada), ITV Hub (UK), others
Following a dominant win over Manchester United to confirm a place in the Champions League semifinals, Barcelona return to action in La Liga with a very important and difficult match against Real Sociedad at Camp Nou. With only six matches left and an eight-point gap over Atlético Madrid in the table plus the head-to-head advantage, it’s almost impossible to lose the title at this point.
But the word almost is still there, which means Barça need to take care of business to wrap up the league as soon as possible. They need nine points from the final 6 games, and with three La Liga matches in a row over the next week there is a giant opportunity to win the title before the semifinal against Liverpool, which would be a big confidence booster as well as a chance for Ernesto Valverde to rest key players between the two legs.
Starting with La Real, which is a really good team that will come to the Greatest Stadium on Earth looking to beat Barça on the counter, the Blaugrana have to take the games seriously and play their best football. We could be celebrating the title for real just a week from now. Barça just need to do their job.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Roberto, Piqué, Umtiti, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Vidal; Messi, Suárez, Dembélé
Sociedad (4-3-3): Rulli; Zaldua, Llorente, Elustondo, Theo H.; Merino, Zubeldia, R. Pardo; Juanmi, Willian José, Oyarzabal
PREDICTION
Having two weeks until the semifinal will help the team focus solely on winning this one and not letting things get dangerous in the title race: 3-1 Barça.
Source: barcablaugranes.com
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