Five-time European champions Barcelona began the new Spanish La Liga season with a win following the six-goal thriller with Real Sociedad. The Ronald Koeman-led team beat the Basque outfit 4-2 at home to start the new campaign on a winning note.

Barcelona have been the centre of attention for several days ahead of the new La Liga season following the exit of the great Lionel Messi who has been at the club throughout his professional career. The Catalan giants could not accommodate Messi and his salary on their wage bill due to the ongoing financial crisis at the club. French Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint Germain (PSG) took full advantage of the financial situation at the Nou Camp by snapping up Messi on a free transfer with an annual salary worth €25m.

Life without Messi got off to a great start for Barcelona with the win over Real Sociedad. The Catalans took the lead on 19 minutes thanks to the header from Spanish international centre back Gerard Pique off the freekick from summer signing Memphis Depay.

Barcelona doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time through the impressive Martin Braithwaite who continued from where he left off at the European Championship. He was one of the stars for Denmark who reached the semifinals. Braithwaite completed his brace just before the hour mark to edge his team 3-0 ahead.

Real Sociedad waited for the final ten minutes to fight backbut it was too little too late. The visitors scored two goals in three minutes through substitute JulenLobete and Spanish international attacker Mikel Oyarzabal. Those two Real Sociedad goals gave Barcelona a big scare before Sergi Roberto made sure of the points in added time.

A lot of football fans wondered how Barcelona would react to the exit of former skipper Messi this summer and they were able to show that there’s still a lot of quality in the team against Real Sociedad on Sunday.