Araujo's late header clinches late victory for Barcelona over Real Sociedad

Barcelona narrowly claimed a 1-0 victory over Real Sociedad on Saturday evening, thanks to a last-gasp winner from Ronald Araujo, despite the Basque visitors’ dominance at Camp Nou.

The Catalan giants delivered one of their most lackluster performances under the leadership of Xavi Hernandez, struggling to mount an effective offensive and spending long spells fending off their impressive Basque counterparts. Real Sociedad controlled the game for the majority of the match and squandered numerous clear-cut opportunities to seize the lead.

The visitors initiated proceedings on a positive note, with star goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen called into action early to make a smart save against Ander Barrenetxea. Real Sociedad’s intensity and ball control kept Barcelona on the defensive, resulting in a lackluster first-half display for Xavi’s side, who struggled to construct meaningful attacking plays.

Even after the halftime interval, Real Sociedad continued to threaten, with Ter Stegen denying Brais Mendez and Takefusa Kubo firing a shot into the side netting. Despite the introductions of Pedri and Ferran Torres, Barcelona struggled to make significant offensive headway, and their best opportunity was squandered by Gavi, who was thwarted late in the game by Alex Remiro.

In a twist of fate, the home team secured an unexpected victory in injury time as Araujo headed in the winning goal from an offside position. However, VAR correctly reversed the decision, awarding the goal in what was a scarcely deserved triumph for Barcelona, who delivered one of their weakest showings under Xavi against an impressive Real Sociedad side.