Barcelona two wins from La Liga title after victory over Real Sociedad

The win keeps Barca’s lead at nine points with five games to go after Atletico Madrid’s 1-0 win at Eibar earlier on Saturday

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Barcelona moved another step closer to retaining La Liga title as the unlikely duo of Clement Lenglet and Jordi Alba secured a 2-1 win over Real Sociedad.

After Sociedad frustrated Barca for much of the opening half, Lenglet opened the scoring with his first La Liga goal, getting a glancing header to a corner to find the far post just before the break.

Sociedad fashioned an impressive equaliser just after the hour as Mikel Merino’s through-ball split the defence and Juanmi ran on to hook the ball beyond Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

But parity lasted only two minutes before a right-footed shot from Jordi Alba beat Geronimo Rulli.

The win keeps Barca’s lead at nine points with five games to go after Atletico Madrid’s 1-0 win at Eibar earlier on Saturday.

Diego Simeone’s men – without suspended forwards Antoine Griezmann and Diego Costa – left it late but took the three points thanks to substitute Thomas Lemar’s close-range finish in the 85th minute.

Celta Vigo moved up to 14th with a 2-1 win over Girona.

Iago Aspas opened the scoring in the 34th minute, and though Portu levelled three minutes into the second half Sofiane Boufal clinched the points with 21 minutes to go.

Bottom duo Rayo Vallecano and Huesca shared the points from a goalless draw which does little to aid either’s hopes of survival.

Vallecano are five points adrift of 17th placed Levante, who play Espanyol on Sunday, while Huesca are a further two points back.

PA