The woodwork on no fewer than five occasions, plus a number of frustratingly close refereeing calls, stood in the way of FC Barcelona and what could have been a mighty win this Sunday in San Sebastian. The football was enough to warrant that, and yet a tense game of football ended with Real Sociedad inflicting a punishing 2-1 defeat on the Catalans, who had come into the game looking to extend the second best winning streak in club history.

the game as it happened

Barça looked to finally on the way to setting things straight after substitute Marcus Rashford headed home with 20 minutes remaining, but Real struck back straight from the restart and try as they could, Hansi Flick’s men couldn’t find a way to get the ball back in the net again.

The result means Barça remain top of the league, but now by only one point after Real Madrid beat Levante 2-0 the day before.

Disallowed goals

A rainy night in the Basque Country couldn’t dampen the atmosphere, with action at both ends of the field right from kick-off and no fewer than four goals disallowed in the opening half hour.

Álvaro Odriozola headed in from an offside position in the very first attack of the game, and moments later Fermín López slotted home the most exquisite of finishes only to see it chalked off because of a supposed foul by Dani Olmo in the build-up.

Frenkie de Jong knew he was offside before he had even ‘scored’ his goal, but the Lamine Yamal one was somewhat more debatable. The youngster was less than half a heel ahead of play when he received the ball and it wasn’t totally clear that it had even come from one of his team-mates, but Barça were again the victims of a very tough call.

Real go ahead

To rub salt into the wound, while Barça were creating all the danger, on a rare breakaway attack, Real took the lead when Oyarzabal met Carlos Soler’s cross with a thundering volley.

Before the break, VAR once again intervened against Barça’s interests. There was no question that Igor Zubeldia had brought Lamine down in the area, but the ensuring penalty was revoked because the original pass had been offside.

Barça could have been two or three up at the break. Instead they were trailing by one, and once again were going to have to find their way back from behind.

Rashford leveller

Two great chances for Olmo both ended with the ball hitting the post, but as the second half wore on, Real looked more and more settled and Barça’s chances started to dry up.

Time for Hansi Flick to shuffle his pack. On came João Cancelo for his ‘redebut’ in a blaugrana jersey. On came Robert Lewandowski, whose first intervention was a header that Álex Remiro turned onto the post with as impressive a save as any we are likely to see this season.

And on came Marcus Rashford, who in the 70th minute would finally get Barça back on level terms by heading home Lamine Yamal’s pinpoint cross.

Behind again

The joy was short-lived. Straight from the kick-off Real went back into the lead. Joan García did brilliantly to block Soler’s attempt, but the keeper was still on the ground as Gonçalo Guedes converted the follow-up.

For most teams, that would have been a cue to tighten things up at the back, but instead Real followed their goal with their most dangerous phase of the game. Even so, Barça came closest to scoring when a Jules Kounde header was the fourth shot onto the woodwork of the game.

The dynamic changed for the final minutes. Soler was red carded for a nasty high challenge on Pedri, and with nine minutes of injury time to go, it was going to be one-way traffic in the direction of the Real goal.

Fermín! Blocked… Rashford! The post for the fifth time… Barça deserved so much more, but the football gods weren’t on their side today.

Ball after ball after ball into the Real area, but nothing came of it, and Barça had been beaten for the first time in 2025.

Força Barça