Where did it all go wrong for Barcelona against Real Sociedad?

Sunday night’s match at the Reale Arenamade for uncomfortable viewing if you were a Barcelona fan.

The performance, or lack of one, brought back memories of seasons past, where Barca routinely saved their poorest display of the season for their visit to San Sebastián.

In recent times, the Catalans had broken the hoodoo of playing there, but Sunday was just terrible.

The visitors weren’t helped by a stunningly bad VAR call it has to be said, and even when viewing the footage that the VAR official will have seen, it’s still a stretch to definitively suggest that the ‘toe’ that was offside was actually Robert Lewandowski’s rather than Nayef Aguerd’s.

Until that point Barca had been workmanlike at best in any event, though taking the lead might have allowed them to play efficiently on the counter as they’ve done many times this season.

By seeing that, and subsequently other poor decisions go against them, it knocked the stuffing out of Hansi Flick’s side, but on the night they were second best throughout.

Jules Kounde certainly missed having the outlet of Lamine Yamal ahead of him, but the Frenchman was woeful across the 90 minutes.

Bullied off the ball for the goal, his passing was off and his running looked laboured. He wasn’t alone in his inability to find an accurate cross either, with almost all of his team-mates aimlessly pumping balls into the box which rarely found their man.

It was like watching Xavi-ball all over again, and for once Hansi Flick couldn’t do a thing about it.

Dani Olmo’s introduction provided a brief glimmer of hope, but after a midweek bout of illness, the Spaniard just didn’t look right.