Real Sociedad joins the champion's party

Something similar must have happened to Barça to the father of Martin Amis, the also writer Kingsley Amis. According to the recently deceased writer, and it was something he shared with his father, after a sexual scene he had to escape from sleep, pull himself together and return to sanity.. “Well, where are we?” he said to himself.. “Because sex is something exclusive”. And the league champion Barça did not know how to catch their breath after so much passion, sweat and cigarette. So much so that Real Sociedad, who had not won at the Camp Nou for 32 years, outwitted history and conquered the promised land thanks to goals from Merino and Sorloth and the impressive leadership of Zubimendi.

The Barca decompression was logical. But before captain Sergio Busquets took the trophy from the hands of Luis Rubiales, president of the Federation, Barça had to defend their recently acquired stripes at the Camp Nou. But football goes so fast that everything is in the past and the day before yesterday has crow's feet. Ask Mateu Alemany, who goes from saying goodbye to staying at the “biggest club in the world.”

So Xavi Hernández, who could not count on Araujo and Pedri due to injury and Gavi due to suspension, rejected the temptation of betting on weak lineups to get the best he had. In other words, again without Ferran Torres or Ansu Fati, whom the club intends to sell this summer due to the coach's conviction that their places have a lot of room for improvement. They both played the last half hour, and they did it with the same spirit of those who know they are condemned.

Imanol Alguacil, meanwhile, was contained in the lineup, but not on the field given the proximity of settling his Champions League position. And there the merit. Because that Real that already came with the casualties of Silva and Brais Méndez left two of its footballers with the greatest creative capacity up front fallow: Take Kubo, whose season is being magnificent, and Oyarzabal, who is still struggling to recover his best level.

The people from San Sebastián, however, had plenty of legs to harass a Barcelona in the open field that suffered tremendously behind Koundé, outmatched by a body as vast as Sorloth's and who did not know how to take advantage of his opportunity as a central defender in a season in which he had to survive on the shore. Xavi replaced him with Marcos Alonso at the end of the first half.

It was precisely Koundé who did not know how to contain the Norwegian when the Frenchman was preparing to drive looking at the shrews. Sorloth jumped into the bush, crossed into the heart of the area and Merino found a gap between Ter Stegen's legs to make it 0-1.

Dembélé's capering

That Real Sociedad scored after five minutes allowed the game to open. The Catalans complied with the pressure, Kessié came from the second line with danger, and Dembélé chained capers like someone who blows soap bubbles. All very nice, but innocuous.

But the blaugrana's mistake in the finishing areas was a constant in the first act. In the second, they barely approached Remiro with danger. The Real Sociedad goalkeeper kicked out Dembélé's header, and Lewandowski, whom Raphinha had found from the baseline, finished off with his ear. The Brazilian winger, who wore a Barca print on his hair, reinforced his status as a strange and contradictory footballer. Because in the next action he assisted a rival, Barrenetxea, who did not have the night in the hot zone.

The 0-2 came in the second half, the work of Sorloth, although the great merit of the episode was Zubimendi. The Barça midfielder robbed De Jong in his own half and had enough strength to get into the box and assist for the 0-2 lead.

The Camp Nou was unfazed. It celebrated Lewandowski’s late equalizer from Ferran’s cross. And it paid tribute to the champion, despite the fact that he did not arrive in time and reserved his strength for the final party, with the La Liga trophy at the epicenter of a joy that ignores the past.