Barcelona dismantled 10-man Real Sociedad 4-0 on Sunday, reclaiming the top spot in La Liga with a dominant display.
Gerard Martin, Marc Casado, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski each found the net, pushing Barcelona one point clear of second-place Atletico Madrid.
“There’s still a long way to go, and things can change quickly,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said. “We have to keep fighting until the end because we want to win everything we can.”
Barcelona now sits three points ahead of third-place Real Madrid, which fell 2-1 to Real Betis on Saturday, while Atletico edged 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.
“The early red card for Real Sociedad changed everything, it’s true, but we forced them into it. They are a very good team, but today we deserved the win,” Flick said.
It was Barcelona’s sixth league win in a row and Sociedad’s second loss in three matches, leaving it in ninth place.
“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.”
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.
“I am happy to be back at the top of the table in La Liga, but now we have to focus on our next objective, which is the game against Benfica,” Flick said.
Barcelona controlled the match from the start at Montjuic Stadium, with Martin scoring in the 25th minute and Casado adding another in the 29th. Araujo extended 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, surpassing the 33 he scored in his best season with Barcelona in 2022-23. He leads La Liga with 21 goals, four more than Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe.
Sociedad, which along with Barcelona, Madrid and Atletico is playing in the Copa del Rey semifinals, struggled from the start and failed to register a shot on goal. Barcelona had 33 total attempts.
Sociedad defender Hamari Traore returned to action in the second half, nearly six months after undergoing knee surgery.
Earlier Sunday, striker Diego Garcia scored two minutes into second-half stoppage time to give 16th-place Leganes a 1-0 win over 14th-place Getafe in a match between teams from the Madrid area.
Valencia missed a chance to move out of the relegation zone after a 3-3 draw at midtable Osasuna.
Winless in three matches, Valencia earned a point with a backheel flick by Umar Sadiq in the 87th minute.
Osasuna is winless in five consecutive games in all competitions.
Eighth-place Mallorca drew 1-1 with 16th-place Leganes.
