Barça bumps into its black beast again (with controversy)

Barcelona350 days later, Barça returned to Zubieta, the scene of the last official match defeat for the Barcelona side. That November 2, 2025, Pere Romeu's team fell 1-0 to Real Sociedad. Almost a year later, the Basque side became their nemesis once again. Pere Romeu's players, who went into the international break with the best possible feelings, lost 2-1, including refereeing controversy.

And that was despite the match starting in the best possible way for Barça. Rosalía, one of the surprises in the starting eleven, combined with Esmee Brugts to put a cross into the area that the local defense cleared to the edge, where Patri Guijarro appeared to make it 0-1. Only 55 seconds had passed and everything pointed to a quiet match for the Catalans, who were also dominating in play, both with and without the ball.

But football never has a predictable script and Real Sociedad managed to equalize with a counterattack initiated by Ainhoa Marín, a footballer who caused a lot of damage to the 'blaugranes', and Nerea Eizagirre. Cecilia Marcos, with an unstoppable shot, completed it to perfection. Martina Fernández was once again exposed, easily overcome by her rival.

This action changed the match completely. Barça, which until then was the clear dominator, began to lose control and the Basque team took advantage of it to surprise. Ainhoa Marín had the 2-1 after a new through ball in which she got behind Van Asten, who despite that played a good game in defense.

They did not achieve it in the first instance, but they did in the second. Just before halftime, Eizagirre combined again with Marín, who overcame the Dutch center-back before dribbling past Cata Coll to score the second goal for the hosts at will. Real Sociedad managed to turn the game around and, for the first time all season, Barça ended the first half trailing on the scoreboard.

Just as it happened last season, the 'blaugranes' were unable to break down the defensive wall set up by the Basques, who, despite not having started the League well –up until this Sunday they had only won one match out of the six played– had already caused many difficulties for Madrid and today they have managed to defeat the reigning European champions.

Romeu exhausted all his options and brought on Kerolin, Kika, Sydney and Graham –as well as Aïcha–, and Barça had the chance to level the duel. Esmee Brugts fell inside the box after a tackle by Esther Laborde –very solid in defense throughout the 90 minutes–. The referee, who initially signaled a penalty, overturned the decision after reviewing it on the monitor, in the face of protests from Romeu, who was very indignant as he considered it a punishable action. Pajor also had the equalizer with a final lob that went just wide.

Barça loses its first match of the season, but remains the sole leader of the Liga F, with a two-point margin over Madrid. The Catalan team will now have a week without matches to work and recover good sensations before hosting Granada at the Johan Cruyff stadium (Saturday the 24th at 8:30 PM, live on 3Cat, RTVE and DAZN). Once again, Real Sociedad and Zubieta have been the 'bête noire' of the 'blaugranes'. Last season the defeat, also seasoned with refereeing controversy, served to win every possible title.