As the Club Football once again returns to action. The new La Liga season starts on the 14th of August 2021. New Era in Barca starts. FC Barcelona will take on Real Sociedad on their first matchday of the 2021/22 La Liga season at Camp Nou. This will be quite an exciting match as after so long days Fans return to the stadium which is definitely good news for the Spanish top-flight football. Barcelona is looking forward to a good start of their New campaign as they start their new Era without their former club legend Lionel Messi. Real Sociedad will look to take the advantage of this situation to take home all 3 points along with them. They are definitely capable of beating the Catalan giants with their players like David Silva, Isak, and Mikel Merino who are Match winners.
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WHY SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
There are plenty of reasons that you shouldn’t miss this match as it will be the first match for both teams as they would love to start their Campaign with a win. It will be interesting to see how Barca start their post-Messi era. Who will be playing in place of Messi and how will Barca shape and who will play in that No 10 position? Barca is also keen to make everybody surprised that this young team is capable of winning trophies.
Real Sociedad will look to take revenge at Camp Nou after getting battered by Barca 6-1 last season at Anoeta. Real Sociedad finished quite well last season and was also a quite promising season as they look forward to finishing top 4 this season and playing Champions League football. A win against Barcelona at Camp Nou will definitely boost their confidence entering into the rest of their Campaign.
FC BARCELONA
Most of the players are still not available for Barca as Pedri, Oscar Miguenza, Eric Garcia who has just returned from Tokyo Olympics and are very unlikely to start as they have been going through a very hectic schedule.
Eric Garcia and Miguenza can make it into the squad list as they had not been playing many matches but as for Pedri he has been starting every game For Spain in EURO and Tokyo Olympics and has been looking exhausted and so Head Coach Ronald Koeman will look forward to providing him some rest. De Jong is fit again and is in contention to start. Depay after finally getting registered will get a debut in tomorrow’s match.
Injury Update
KUN AGUERO- Kun Aguero the new signing of Barca has suffered a tendon injury in his right calf and will be out of 10 weeks approx.
ANSU FATI- Ansu Fati is still in the final stretch of his recovery and is expected to return in September.
OUSMANE DEMBELE- Ousmane Dembele got injured while playing for France in Euro 2020 and will be out for 4 months.
MARC ANDRE TER STEGEN- Ter stage had surgery after the end of the last season and is training individually and is expected to return in October.
Lenglet- Lenglet was also injured and was rumored to be out for 2 weeks.
EXPECTED STARTING 11
Head coach Ronald Koeman is expected to go with a 4-3-3 Formation. As Barca has always been playing.
GK- NETO MURARA
CB- RONALD ARAUJO
CB- GERARD PIQUE
RB- SERGINO DEST
LB- JORDI ALBA
CMF- DE JONG
CMF- RIQUI PUIG / PEDRI
DMF- SERGIO BUSQUETS
LWF- GRIEZMANN
RWF- YUSUF DEMIR
CF- MEMPHIS DEPAY
Key Players to look out for
MEMPHIS DEPAY- There are a lot of expectations from Barca’s key signing this season Memphis and is expected to start as he has been performing well in Preseason and also scoring goals against Juventus in the gamer trophy and is definitely a player who will score goals.
ANTOINE GRIEZMANN- With the exit of Messi this season Griezmann is considered to be one of the important players in the squad and has to score more goals to prove himself and has been playing well since last season and has performed well so far in preseason.
RICARD PUIG- With the absence of Pedri and De Jong still doubtful for the match Riqui Puig might be the player who can start the season opener and is one of the midfielders who is loved by fans and has scored two goals in the preseason.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
In the last 5 matches, Barcelona has the upper hand with a big win at Anoeta last season 6-1 and also have won 3 matches out of 5 with 0 losses and 2 draws but Sociedad will look forward to breaking this streak by getting a win at Camp Nou.
REAL SOCIEDAD
Real Sociedad also has injury concerns entering into the match against Barca. Mikel Oyarzabal has returned from the Olympics and is expected to have some rest before returning to football action. David Silva has also returned to training after having some rest and no doubt will be available for the 1st match of the season.
Injury Update
Montreal- Nacho Montreal will miss the match due to a knee injury.
CARLOS FERNANDES- Carlos Fernandes had suffered a right knee injury during a friendly match and is expected to be out till September.
DIEGO RICO- Diego Rico is doubtful for the opener match as he is injured and is now a major concern for Sociedad as they expected him to be important and to start this season.
IGOR ZUBELDIA- Igor has started to train individually and is still listed for the match against Barcelona.
Isak – Isak who was excellent for the Swiss National Team has been unfortunately ruled out of this clash.
Expected Lineup
Real Sociedad might go with the same 4-3-3 formation in order to match Barca’s line-up and also to balance the attack and the defense at the same time switching back to 3-4-3 formation.
GK- ALEX REMIRO
CB- M.SAGNAN
CB- R.DE. NORMAND
LB- A.MUNOZ
RB- A. GOROSABEL
CMF- M.MERINO
CMF- A.GUEVARA
AMF- DAVID SILVA
RWF- PORTU
LWF- A.BARRENETXEA
CF- Oyarzabal
Key Players to watch out for
DAVID SILVA- David Silva is no doubt an excellent player and has been decent for Real Sociedad with 2 goals and 5 assists and is expected to score more goals and have decent passing and assists in the opener.
MIKEL MERINO- Last season he was one of the best midfielders Sociedad had and with 26 appearances and 2 goals had excited the fans a lot and is going to be a crucial match-winner with his defensive capabilities and attacking capabilities too.
Conclusion
Barcelona is looking for a win and to get a good start to their new Messi-less era as well as the 2021-22 season. Sociedad too would like to start with a win especially a win at Iconic Camp Nou. Will Barcelona let them win at their home ?? OR Will Sociedad shock the Catalans?
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