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Sports Desk, May 14 (EFE).-

Lamine Yamal and Raphinha struck in either half as Barcelona beat Real Sociedad 2-0 to return to second place in the LaLiga and revive their hopes of playing in the Spanish Super Cup next edition.

Defeat against Girona last weekend meant Barça had to depend on the fellow Catalan side to drop points if they were to claim the last remaining berth in the Super Cup.

Alaves did Barca a favor on Friday night by holding Girona to a 2-2 draw, and Xavi Hernandez’s charges capitalized on it by edging past Sociedad.

The victory was, however, far from guaranteed against a side that was pursuing a place in the Europa League.

A brilliant Lamine Yamal had put Barça ahead just before the break, but it wasn’t until Raphinha scored from a penalty in injury time of the second half that the hosts could breathe easy.

It took Barca 40 minutes to break the deadlock as Lamine finished off a build-up involving Robert Lewandowski and Ilkay Gundogan for his fifth goal in the campaign.

The goal came just moments after Raphinha hit the post, and Sociedad created a chance on a counterattack by Surinamese forward Sheraldo Becker.

Barça looked a lot more settled after taking the lead, and Raphinha came close to doubling their advantage with a long-range shot towards the top corner in 64 minutes.

But Alex Remiro did well to tip the ball over the bar before he prevented substitute Ferran Torres from scoring with his first kick of the ball.

In between, Brais Mendez failed to grab an equalizer for Sociedad owing to his poor finish from a good position after a mistake from Gundogan.

Raphinha made it 2-0 after a penalty was awarded to Barca for a handball in the dying seconds.

Barca will play Almeria away in their next match. EFE

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