BARCELONA: Barcelona returned to the top of the La Liga table and wrested back control of the title race with a comfortable 4-0 home victory over 10-man Real Sociedad on Sunday.

Barcelona’s sixth straight league win moved them into first place with 57 points from 26 games, one ahead of Atletico Madrid. Defending champions Real Madrid are third with 54 points after a 2-1 defeat at Real Betis on Saturday.

“We’re happy about the way we played. It was important to win today, to go first in the table. We’re happy and we feel that we’re working really well,” said defender Ronald Araujo, who scored a goal and bagged an assist.

Sociedad attempted to catch Barca off guard straight after the whistle and thought they had taken the lead through Sergio Gomez’s deflected strike, only for the VAR to disallow the third-minute goal for offside.

The visitors’ early momentum then evaporated after they went down to 10 men when defender Aritz Elustondo bundled over Barcelona’s Dani Olmo in the 17th minute and was shown a red card as the last man.

It did not take long for Barcelona to make their advantage count.

Hansi Flick’s side opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a fine team effort that started with Lamine Yamal dribbling past two players before squaring for Olmo, whose chipped pass was volleyed home by Gerard Martin for his first professional goal.

Three minutes later, Marc Casado matched the achievement when Olmo’s long-range shot deflected off of him and into the net.

Barcelona kept up the pressure after the interval and created chance after chance, adding a third goal in the 56th minute when a rebound from goalkeeper Alex Remiro’s save was headed in by Araujo.

With a sizeable lead in hand, Flick made a triple substitution to preserve his players for their Champions League last-16 first-leg clash with Portuguese side Benfica on Wednesday.

Barcelona continued to look dangerous despite the changes and scored a fourth when striker Robert Lewandowski smartly redirected an effort from Araujo to net his 21st league goal of the season and wrap up the victory.

The goal was Lewandowski’s 34th in all competitions this season, more than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues and the most he has scored for Barcelona in a single campaign since joining the Catalan giants in 2022.

Sociedad, who have managed just four away wins this season, are ninth.

“The red card, after that the game changed completely, we came here to try and dominate the ball,” said Real Sociedad defender Javi Lopez.

“A sending off changes everything… they also had luck on their goals and that makes it very difficult against one of the best teams in the world.”

Elsewhere on Sunday, Valencia snatched a thrilling 3-3 draw at Osasuna thanks to a remarkable backheel volley by Umar Sadiq.

The Nigeria striker netted a brace, the second of those his spectacular finish from Sergi Canos’ cross after 87 minutes to earn his team an important point in the relegation battle.

Valencia are 18th, one point ahead of Deportivo Alaves who drew 1-1 at Mallorca earlier.

Leganes, 16th, beat Getafe 1-0 to move three points clear of the drop zone.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2025