Real Sociedad vs Barcelona, Spanish Super Cup: Team News, Match Preview

Real Sociedad vs FC Barcelona

Competition/Round: 2021 Supercopa de España, Semifinal 1

Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Ansu Fati, Gerard Piqué, Philippe Coutinho, Sergi Roberto, Matheus Fernandes (out)

Real Sociedad Outs & Doubts: Luca Sangalli, Aihen Muñoz (out), Aritz Elustondo, Miguel Ángel Moyá, David Silva (doubt)

Date/Time: Wednesday, January 13, 2021, 9pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8pm GMT (UK), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 1.30am IST (India, Thursday)

Venue: Estadio Nuevo Arcángel, Córdoba, Spain

Referee: José Luis Munuera Montero

VAR: José Luis González González

How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), Canal+ Sport 5 (Nigeria), others

How to stream: FuboTV (USA), others

Following a big win away from home against Granada to make it eight straight games without a loss in La Liga, Barcelona are back in action for the semifinal of the Spanish Super Cup against Real Sociedad in Córdoba. The 2021 Super Cup will not be played in Saudi Arabia as originally scheduled because of the pandemic.

Barça won’t play a La Liga match until next weekend, with the Supercopa final on Sunday (if they get there) and a Copa del Rey game against Cornellà next week, so now it’s all about the least important competitions in the calendar. But for this team, the Super Cup means something.

It’s not about the trophy, which will never serve as a fitting consolation prize for a club like Barcelona. It’s about proving that they’re good enough to compete for everything, which was not something we thought possible of this team this season. But the unbeaten run and the quality of the performances over the last four weeks are encouraging, and now they’re put to the test against a really good Sociedad team that played Barça really tough at Camp Nou a month ago.

Real Madrid could be the opponent on Sunday, and what an exciting thing would it be to have El Clásico this weekend to truly find out how good this team is. But La Real is more than capable of causing the upset, and Barça have to play their best. This will be a good one.

Let’s dance.

POSSIBLE LINEUPS

Barcelona (4-3-3): Neto; Dest, Mingueza, Lenglet, Alba; De Jong, Busquets, Pedri; Dembélé, Messi, Griezmann

R. Sociedad (4-3-3): Remiro; Gorosabel, Zubeldia, Le Normand, Monreal; Merino, Guevara, Guridi; Portu, Willian José, Oyarzabal

PREDICTION

La Real will be tough, but Barça will find a way to reach the Final: 3-2 to the good guys.