FC Barcelona (2nd, 16pts) vs Real Sociedad (18th, 5pts)<\/p>\n
Competition\/Round<\/strong>: 2025-26 La Liga, Matchday 7<\/p>\n Barcelona Outs & Doubts<\/strong>: Marc-Andr\u00e9 ter Stegen, Joan Garcia, Gavi, Raphinha, Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez (out)<\/p>\n Real Sociedad Outs & Doubts<\/strong>: Aritz Elustondo, Orri Oskarsson, Yangel Herrera (doubt)<\/p>\n Date\/Time<\/strong>: Sunday, September 28, 2025, 6.30pm CET (Barcelona), 5.30pm BST\/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 12.30pm ET, 9.30am PT (USA), 10pm IST (India)<\/p>\n Venue<\/strong>: Estadi Ol\u00edmpic Llu\u00eds Companys, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain<\/p>\n Referee<\/strong>: Alejandro Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez Hern\u00e1ndez<\/p>\n VAR<\/strong>: Javier Iglesias Villanueva<\/p>\n How to watch on TV<\/strong>: ESPN Deportes (USA), Premier Sports 1 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), Movistar (Spain), others<\/a><\/p>\n How to watch o<\/strong>nline<\/strong>: ESPN+<\/a> (USA), Premier Sports Player (UK), FanCode (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others<\/a><\/p>\n Following a hard-fought win over Real Oviedo in midweek to extend their winning streak to four games after the international break, Barcelona return to action with a La Liga match against Real Sociedad at the Montju\u00efc Olympic Stadium on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n Bar\u00e7a come into this one with added motivation thanks to Atl\u00e9tico Madrid\u2019s epic win over Real Madrid in Saturday\u2019s Derby, which ended Los Blancos\u2019 perfect start and gives the Blaugrana the chance to go top of the table with a win on Sunday, which would be their fourth straight in the league and fifth in all competitions.<\/p>\n This exact scenario took place almost seven months ago: Bar\u00e7a hosted Real Sociedad at Montju\u00efc on a Sunday afternoon with a chance to go top of the La Liga table, and what followed was a spectacle: after La Real went down to 10 men with an early red card Bar\u00e7a put on a show, with nearly 80% possession and over 30 attempts without allowing a single shot as the Blaugrana won 4-0 and reclaimed top spot, which they would never relinquish en route to winning the league title.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to expect things to unfold the exact same way this time, simply because it\u2019s hard to count on a red card to change a game as early as it did last March. Bar\u00e7a will also be facing a much more desperate Sociedad team, who will start the game just outside the relegation zone and are in need of a major result to turn their season around.<\/p>\n The core of the squad that had so much success under previous manager Imanol Alguacil is still there, although the departure of Martin Zubimendi has had a serious impact on their midfield. There\u2019s still a ton of talent up front, however, and a hard-fought first win of the season against Mallorca in midweek will give them confidence that they can pull off a huge upset.<\/p>\n Bar\u00e7a have a weird habit of not taking advantage of big Real Madrid losses in recent years, but they really need to come out on top in this one and send an early statement in the title race after their biggest rivals showed major signs of weakness on Saturday. A victory against Sociedad also gives a boost of confidence ahead of the monster Champions League clash with PSG, so there are multiple reasons to be motivated to get all three points on Sunday.<\/p>\n Barcelona (4-2-3-1)<\/strong>: Szczesny; Kounde, Araujo, Cubars\u00ed, Mart\u00edn; De Jong, Pedri; Rashford, Olmo, Ferran; Lewandowski<\/p>\n Real Sociedad (4-3-3)<\/strong>: Remiro; Aramburu, Zubeldia, Caleta-Car, G\u00f3mez; M\u00e9ndez, Gorrotxategi, Soler; Kubo, Oyarzabal, Barrenetxea<\/p>\n La Real really need a result and they\u2019ll put up a fight, but I believe the home team will have the right level of focus and motivation to pick up the victory and reclaim top spot: 3-1 Bar\u00e7a.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FC Barcelona (2nd, 16pts) vs Real Sociedad (18th, 5pts) Competition\/Round: 2025-26 La Liga, Matchday 7 Barcelona Outs &…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":260978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[136668,1396,1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-260977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-barcelona-match-previews","9":"tag-barcelona-la-liga","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115281305506822539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}