Fri | Sep 12, 2025

Barca’s 4-0 win puts them top

Published:Monday | March 3, 2025 | 12:10 AM
Barcelona’s Ronald Araujo celebrates scoring his side’s third goal during the Spanish La Liga football match against Real Sociedad at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, yesterday.
AP
Barcelona’s Ronald Araujo celebrates scoring his side’s third goal during the Spanish La Liga football match against Real Sociedad at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, yesterday.

MADRID (AP):

BARCELONA CRUISED to a 4-0 rout over 10-man Real Sociedad to regain the lead in Spain yesterday.

Gerard Martín, Marc Casadó, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski scored a goal each to put Barcelona one point ahead of second-placed Atletico Madrid at the top of the Spanish league. Barcelona are three points ahead of third-placed Real Madrid, who lost 2-1 at Real Betis on Saturday, when Atletico beat Athletic Bilbao 1-0 at home.

“Very happy with the match we played,” Araujo said. “It was important to win and become leaders again. It was a great effort by the team.”

Sociedad played a man down from the 17th minute after Aritz Elustondo was sent off with a straight red card for grabbing Barcelona forward Dani Olmo to stop a breakaway.

“It was a clear red card,” Sociedad coach Imanol Alguacil said. “After that, there was no game. It’s already hard 11 against 11 against them, you can imagine with a man down.”

It was the sixth win in a row for Barcelona in the league, and the second loss in three matches for Sociedad, who stayed in ninth place.

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick rested some regular starters ahead of the team’s Champions League match at Benfica on Wednesday in the first leg of the round of 16.

Barcelona were in control from the start at Montjuic stadium, with Martín scoring in the 25th and Casadó in the 29th. Araujo added to the lead in the 56th and Lewandowski closed the scoring in the 60th for his eighth goal in his last nine matches.

Lewandowski now has 34 goals this season in all competitions, one more than the 33 he scored in what had been his previous best season with the Catalan club in 2022-23.

Sociedad, who, along with Barcelona, Madrid and Atletico, are playing in the Copa del Rey semi-finals, struggled from the start and had no attempts on goal. Barcelona had 33 total attempts.

Sociedad defender Hamari Traoré entered the match in the second half to mark his return to action nearly six months after having to undergo knee surgery.

Earlier Sunday, striker Diego García scored two minutes into second-half stoppage time to give 16th-placed Leganes a 1-0 win over 14th-placed Getafe in a match between teams from the Madrid area.

Valencia and Osasuna played out a 3-3 draw, leaving the former still just in the relegation zone on the same number of points as Las Palmas in 17th.