Barcelona 1 - 0 Real Sociedad

Barcelona 1-0 Real Sociedad

Updated: December 9, 2006, 9:31 PM UK

BARCELONA, December 9 (Primera Liga) - Ronaldinho's 11th league goal of the season saw Barcelona scrape a narrow victory over struggling Real Sociedad at the Nou Camp on Saturday and kept the Catalans top of the table after 14 rounds of the Primera Liga.

The Brazilian's excellent side-footed finish after an hour was enough to give the Spanish champions the three points in their last match before the squad head off to Japan later this week for the FIFA Club World Championship.

Coach Frank Rijkaard made four changes from the side which beat Werder Bremen on Tuesday.

French defender Lilian Thuram came in for Mexican Rafael Marquez -rested for this match and Brazilian full-backs Juliano Belletti and Sylvinho replaced Gianluca Zambrotta and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

In midfield, Xavi was preferred to Andres Iniesta, but Rijkaard kept faith with Ronaldinho, Ludovic Giuly and Eidur Gudjohnsen up front with Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto'o and Javier Saviola all still missing through injury.

Real Sociedad, meanwhile, started with Serbian striker Darko Kovacevic alone up front.

The visitors started brightly but Barcelona soon settled and had two goals disallowed for off-side in an eventful first half.

In the 18th minute, Gudjohnsen saw his effort correctly ruled out after controlling neatly and firing past goalkeeper Claudio Bravo from the edge of the area.

Three minutes later, the Icelandic forward set up Ronaldinho on the left-hand side of the area, but Bravo dived low to push away the Brazilian's shot and although Xavi was on hand to poke the rebound into an empty net, the Spanish midfielder was adjudged to be fractionally off-side.

Barcelona seemed to be in total control, but Real Sociedad almost took the lead in the 27th minute when the Catalans failed to clear and the loose ball fell to the unmarked Mikel Aranburu 15 yards out.

The midfielder tried to place his shot, but full-back Belletti dived low to his left to clear with Victor Valdes beaten.

At the other end, Ronaldinho sent a stunning scissor-kick inches wide and Deco also went close with a header as Barcelona piled on the pressure.

But Real Sociedad held on until half-time, when the Nou Camp jeered the officials off the pitch for having disallowed their team two goals.

Barcelona took a while to get going after the break and Gari Uranga almost made the Catalans pay after 52 minutes, but could not direct his header past Valdes from close range.

Bravo had to be alert six minutes later to punch away Giuly's cross with Gudjohnsen waiting to pounce, but the goalkeeper could do nothing to prevent Ronaldinho from scoring in Barcelona's next attack.

Giuly spotted the Brazilian unmarked on the edge of the area and squared neatly to the brilliant number 10, who sweetly side-footed home from just inside the area with 61 minutes gone.

The Catalans then immediately came close to doubling their lead, but Xavi fired his shot straight at Bravo after being set up by Deco.

With 10 minutes left on the clock, Ronaldinho threaded a lovely ball through to Xavi, but the midfielder fired into the side netting.

Belletti then blasted over from 30 yards as Barcelona searched for an elusive second goal.

But the Basques were not out of it yet and Valdes had to be alert to block Kovacevic's effort on 82 minutes.

Sylvinho then departed the field after receiving two yellow cards in the space of two minutes.

The Brazilian was booked for time-wasting and then saw red for a seemingly innocuous foul in the centre circle.

Real Sociedad almost equalised in injury time, when Valdes acrobatically tipped over Mikel Gonzalez's brilliant header.

But Barcelona hung on and collected three more valuable points which keep them top of the table.