Barcelona Big Three of (from L to R) Neymar, Lionel Messi, and Luis Suárez. (Photo : Getty Images)
Middling squad Real Sociedad (10-13-8, 38 points) is scheduled to take on defending champions and current league leaders FC Barcelona (24-3-4, 76 points) at the Anoeta Stadium for a 2015-2016 La Liga season encounter this Saturday, April 9th.
Real Sociedad is coming off an impressive 2-1 victory over contending team Sevilla FC on the road at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium last Sunday, as reported by ESPN.
Txuriurdin pulled off the win despite being a man down in the final 22 plus minutes when midfielder Markel Bergara was sent off at the 68th after getting booked for a second yellow card off a bad foul on Sevillistas midfielder Ever Banega.
Bergara scored the opening goal right at the second minute of the match to surprise the hosts and give the early lead to manager Eusebio Sacristán's squad. La Real doubled the lead at the 34th minute as Sevilla's Polish midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak had an own goal.
The hosts managed to get on the board six minutes into the second half of play via a successful penalty kick by French forward Kevin Gameiro.
With the win, Sociedad held on to the 10th spot in the league table, a comfortable 10 points above the bottom three relegation zone with only seven matchdays away from season's end.
Meanwhile, Barcelona suffered a stinging setback in their recent El Clásico match, dropping a 1-2 decision to Real Madrid at the Camp Nou last Saturday, snapping their record-breaking 39-game unbeaten streak, as per SkySports.
Interestingly, it was Real Madrid's 28-year-old record of consecutive undefeated games that Barça broke during their 35th straight unbeaten performance two months ago and so it was just fitting that Los Blancos halt their run as well.
The Catalonia giants actually scored the opening goal of the match at the 56th minute with a brilliant Gerard Pique header off a stunning cross from Lionel Messi after a scoreless first half of play.
Luis Enrique's power trio of Messi, Luis Suárez, and Neymar seemed to be not in their top form during the high-profile contest as they could not get themselves going in the entire match.
Karim Benzema equalized at the 62nd minute before Real captain Sergio Ramos was given a red card and sent off the pitch.
From there, it looks like the Blaugrana will have another typical victory, but Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winning goal at the 85th to lead the 10-man Los Vikingos over their arch-rivals.
The predicted result is a 3-0 bounce back win for Barcelona.
Real Sociedad starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Rulli; C. Martinez, Reyes, I. Martinez, Berchiche; Prieto, Pardo, Illarramendi; Oyarzabal, Vela, Zurutuza
Barcelona starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Bravo; Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suárez, Neymar
