FC Barcelona have pulled off an incredible escape act at the Reale Arena.

They were lucky not to go behind early against a Real Sociedad team that created most of the game’s high-quality scoring opportunities, but they prevailed and earned three critical points.

In the last seconds of stoppage time, Ronald Araujo galloped to meet Ilkay Gündogan and score the game’s only goal. The final score was 0-0.

The Deliverer Araujo

To add to the suspense, the goal was first ruled offside, since it appeared to be from the stands. But following a VAR review it was discovered that there was nothing wrong with Uruguayan’s stance and Barça had won the game in the most unusual of methods.

The yellow blaugrana hadn’t exactly been playing their best football, and Real Sociedad had several opportunities to go up by two or more goals. They weren’t, though. Barça hung on thanks to a mix of outstanding goalkeeping, dogged defense, and a little bit of luck, and then struck as the home team tired in the last 10 minutes.

An unexpected surge

They almost got it when Araujo fired a thunderous shot from beyond the area, but lex Remiro blocked it. It was the first time all game that Real’s goalie was truly challenged, and he was called upon again shortly thereafter to deny what appeared to be a definite goal for Gavi.

The Barça that came out strong in the final minutes was a completely different team than the one that had labored for the majority of the game. Again, though, we saw that despite the team’s shortcomings, its members are all high-caliber contributors who can carry the day.

Problems galore

The early signals indicated that this would be a challenging contest. Ter Stegen had to make two big stops in the first two minutes of the contest.

The goalie was in for a hectic night, and Barça were fortunate to get through it unharmed. Possession was being converted into opportunities at an alarming rate by Real Sociedad.

It’s safe to say that nobody was content with the status quo. Barça could never settle down, and Real’s frustration was rising as they failed to capitalize on their opportunities.

Comeback, Pedri

The visitors’ play did grow better as the game went on, especially after Pedri made his long-awaited comeback from injury as a second-half replacement, but it still didn’t provide very many exciting moments.

Most of the action, however, was occurring within Real Sociedad’s own territory, and as time went on, it started to appear like a single point would not be so awful as compared to no points at all.

However, Barça is not the type of squad to accept a tie. Ever. Given the current state of affairs at the top of the standings, this is extremely important.

They really needed to win. They wouldn’t give up hope and abandon their beliefs. They succeeded, after all.

Success despite difficulties

After the game, an elated Ter Stegen said, “I’m not sure we really deserved that!” However, football has always been a strange sport. Xavi even said that they should have lost the game versus Madrid, but instead they came out on top tonight. In football, situations like this do occur.

Now that we’ve gotten beyond that scary moment, we’ll face Shakthar in the Champions League on Tuesday and Alavés in the Estadi Olimpic again this coming weekend.