A Neymar penalty conversion helped Barcelona earn a long-awaited 1-0 win over Real Sociedad in their Copa del Rey quarterfinal first leg on Thursday night at Anoeta in San Sebastian.
For Barcelona, it was their first victory on Real Sociedad's home turf in nearly 10 years and halted a wretched winless streak in San Sebastian of eight matches. The Brazilian was the hero on the night for Barcelona, as he both drew and scored the penalty that hands the reigning Copa del Rey champions an edge going into next week's return leg at the Camp Nou.
It was far from Barcelona's best, but all the ghosts that seem to appear any time they take the field in San Sebastian never surfaced. The Catalonians delivered a strong performance in defence while doing enough in attack to limit the hosts' chances.
Manager Luis Enrique made a few changes from the weekend team that downed Las Palmas, with the most notable insertion being the out of favour Ivan Rakitic back in the starting XI. Also returning to the line-up were goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen and left-back Lucas Digne.
Real Sociedad have always liked to jump on Barcelona early whenever the two teams meet at Anoeta and Thursday was no different as the Basques pressured the Catalonians in the match's initial moments. A Samuel Umtiti giveaway deep in the Barcelona half gave Real Sociedad the game's first chance, but Mikel Oyarzabal fired over the crossbar.
The match had an electric feel to it in the first half, with both teams fiercely battling for every ball and looking to strike quickly. One such run into the Real Sociedad area yielded a penalty for Barcelona after Aritz Elustondo tripped Neymar and the Brazilian coolly converted the spot kick 60 seconds later to give Barcelona a 1-0 lead.
Real Sociedad looked to respond and Mexican striker Carlos Vela set up Asier Illarramendi with a chance to pull the hosts level, but the former Real Madrid man's shot deflected off Gerard Pique and out for a corner kick.
Barcelona looked to add to their lead to start the second half and Neymar had two great looks at goal but failed to convert. First the Brazilian's touch let him down and allowed Real Sociedad goalkeeper Rulli to save in a one-on-one and then minutes later the Brazilian flashed a shot wide from the left after good work from Messi.
The hosts remained relentless in their pursuit of an equaliser and just after the hour mark their chance came when Zurutuza dished to Yuri on the left but the shot back across goal rolled inches wide of Cillessen's far post and out of the reach of the hard-charging Oyarzabal.
But time was running out on Real Sociedad and outside of a 90th minute Illarramendi header that was thumped wide, Eusebio's men were unable to muster a serious look at goal, thus ending Barcelona's Anoeta curse.
Up next for Barcelona is a return to La Liga action on Sunday away at Eibar.

Match Sheet:

0.- Real Sociedad: Rulli; Aritz, Navas, Iñigo, Yuri; Prieto (Canales, min. 76), Illarramendi, Zurutuza; Vela (Juanmi, min. 72), Willian José (David Concha, min. 80), Oyarzabal

1.- FC Barcelona: Cillessen; Sergi Roberto, Piqué, Umtiti, Digne; Busquets, Rakitic (Denis Suarez, min. 69), Iniesta (Andre Gomes, min. 46); Messi, Suárez, Neymar

Goals: 0-1, min. 20: Neymar (p);

Referee: Gonzalez Gonzalez (Castilla-Leon).

Yellow Cards: Messi (Min. 43) for Barcelona, Neymar (Min. 63) for Barcelona, Illarramendi (Min. 93) for Real Sociedad

Stadium: Anoeta

Attendance: 28,461