Koeman Reveals How Messi's Absence Affected Barcelona Despite Impressive Display Against Real Sociedad

• Ronald Koeman stated that he would love to have Lionel Messi in his ranks despite Barcelona's convincing victory over Real Sociedad
• La Blaugrana played without their former talisman in their opening La Liga fixture at Camp Nou with scanty fans around the stadium
• Messi completed a summer free transfer move to French giants Paris Saint-Germain after 21-years with Barca

Barcelona started their campaign against Real Sociedad at Camp Nou and produced a five-star performance without their former player Lionel Messi, Goal, Marca.

Ronald Koeman admitted he was satisfied with his team's display but would still prefer if Messi who departed for Paris Saint-Germain in the past week was in the starting XI.

La Blaugrana defeated visiting Sociedad by 4-2 with Martin Braithwaite posting a man-of-the-match performance scoring two goals and assisting one.

Gerard Pique and Sergi Roberto scored the first and the last goals with the help of Memphis Depay and Braithwaite.

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What Koeman said

After the game, Koeman who is still trying to come to terms with Messi's departure revealed his side would have been a better team if Messi was in the squad.

“I think our game can be more collective than before, but I’d prefer to have Messi in my team. But if we don’t have the player, it has to be the collective.”

Summary of the game

Barcelona had gone 2-0 up and added another before the hour mark before Sociedad woke up from the dead.

Ander Barrenetxea's brilliant through ball to Julen Lobete in the 82nd minute got one back for the visitors as captain Mikel Oyarzabal delivered a stunning free-kick to make it 3-2 in the 85th minute.

A brilliant counter-attacking move from Antoine Griezmann found Braithwaite on the right who delivered in a low cross which was tapped in by Roberto to seal the game off.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that Spanish club Barcelona might be plunged into further crisis as latest reports have it that Argentine striker Sergio Aguero is already finding his way out following Lionel Messi’s exit, Forbes reports.

Aguero joined the Catalan giants from Premier League club Manchester City just this summer, but now he reportedly wants out.

Catalan outlet Beteve is reporting that the crisis rocking Barcelona could reach new heights as Aguero notified his lawyers to look at a possibility of cancelling his contract.