Barcelona routs 10-man Real Sociedad to go top in Spain

MADRID (AP) — Barcelona cruised to a 4-0 rout of 10-man Real Sociedad to regain the lead in Spain on Sunday.

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.

“There is still a long way to go and everything can change very quickly,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said. “We have to keep fighting until the end because we want to win everything we can.”

Barcelona is three points ahead of third-placed Real Madrid, which 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.

“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 the sixth win in a row for Barcelona in the league, and the second loss in three matches for Sociedad, which stayed 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.

Prolific Lewandowski

Barcelona was 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. He is the league’s top scorer with 21 goals, four more than Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé, who is second on the list.

Sociedad, which along with Barcelona, Madrid and Atletico is playing in the Copa del Rey semifinals, 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.

Other results

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 neat backheel flick by Umar Sadiq in the 87th.

Osasuna hasn’t won in five consecutive games in all competitions.

Eighth-placed Mallorca drew 1-1 with 16th-placed Leganes.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer