Barcelona seeks rare victory at Sociedad

Barcelona must overturn a terrible run of results away to Real Sociedad in recent years to prevent losing its grip on the Spanish title race when it visits Anoeta on Saturday.

Despite tasting defeat for the first time in 40 games on its most recent La Liga outing at home to Real Madrid last weekend, Barca still holds a commanding six-point lead over Atletico Madrid with Real a further point adrift and just seven games remaining.

However, the European champion has not won in its past six trips to San Sebastian, including defeats in the past three seasons in La Liga.

"We have shown in recent years that we can beat Barca and we can do it again on Saturday," Real Sociedad's former Real Madrid midfielder Asier Illarramendi told the club's website.

"This team can beat anyone when we play well.

"Until it is mathematically decided, Barca will have to fight and I am sure Atletico and Real Madrid won't give up."

Barca has particularly bad memories of its last visit to Anoeta as a 1-0 defeat plunged the club into crisis and left coach Luis Enrique on the verge of the sack.

Enrique had left Lionel Messi and Neymar on the bench as a punishment for arriving back later than their teammates from their Christmas break.

Barca recovered in style from that setback to land the treble six months later, but its quest to become the first side to retain the Champions League could play a major role in the coach's selection as it holds a precarious 2-1 lead over Atletico heading into the second leg of its quarterfinal tie on Wednesday.

Luis Suarez scored both of Barca's goals against Atletico on Tuesday, but the Uruguayan will definitely miss out as he is suspended.

Munir El Haddadi is likely to replace Suarez with Sergi Roberto, Arda Turan and Rafinha - who made his first appearance after a six-month injury layoff in midweek - in contention to start in midfield.

Champions League considerations are likely to weigh heavily on the minds of Atletico and Real bosses Diego Simeone and Zinedine Zidane.

Atletico can close to within three points with victory at Espanyol before Barca kicks off on Saturday.

Fernando Torres looks certain to start as he will be suspended for the Champions League return leg after being sent off having opened the scoring at the Camp Nou on Tuesday.

(China Daily 04/09/2016 page12)