BARÇA v REAL SOCIEDAD TICKETS Saturday, December 9, 2006. The final outing before Japan

Having lifted spirits at the Anoeta, Real Sociedad’s new coach Miguel Angel Lotina will not be relishing his team’s trip to Camp Nou for what will be a very long evening.
The San Sebastian-based club earned a creditable draw at Atletico de Madrid last weekend and moved off the foot of the table for the first time since September. After an horrendous start to the campaign, la Real sacked former Barca midfielder Jose Mari Bakero as their trainer and installed Lotina, who had been looking for work since quitting Espanyol at the end of last season. Victories may still be difficult to come by, but three draws in their last three games have at least stopped the feeling that they are doomed to lose before games even start. Like Barca, the Basque Country outfit have several of their forwards missing through injury, but unlike Barca, they do not have a star-studded HH squad from which to pluck a replacement.
Darko Kovacevic is back on the treatment table,
while Danish striker, Morten Skoubo, is also sidelined and after opting to allow Nihat to leave during the summer la Real are somewhat bereft of a sure-fire goalscorer.
As for Barca, this is their last league game before they jet off for the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan.
Knowing that they were going to be participating in such a gruelling mid-season expedition, it makes the folly of the pre-season tour to Mexico and the United States, in favour of a more traditional warm-up, seem all the more daft.
The players are all talking about wanting to have a cushion at the top of the table before they make their way to the Land of the Rising Sun and a victory over here would at least ensure that they leave with three points under their belt.
Against Villarreal, the Blaugrana proved that despite all the absentees they can still perform as they produced one of their most complete displays of the season.
Ronaldinho also answered a few critics by netting his 50th league goal for the club and then following that up by scoring one of the goals of the season.
After a performance like that, it has to be hoped that the trip to-Japan does not set the players back and that they can return to maintain the level that they are reaching.