Barcelona knocked Real Sociedad off the top of LaLiga by defeating them 2-1 Wednesday at the Camp Nou. If you’re a Blaugrana supporter, you’ll only want to see the opening 45 minutes, when Willian José’s opener against the run of play was sumptuously canceled out by Jordi Alba before Frenkie de Jong gave Barça a deserved lead at halftime. 

However, as beIN SPORTS commentator Ray Hudson said, it was “a magisterial first half followed by an absolute circus.”

Neymar was never out of the headlines while at Barcelona and his departure continues to leave ripples at the Catalan club, so all eyes will be on him when Paris Saint-Germain meet the LaLiga side in the Champions League last 16 early next year.

Barcelona will face Paris Saint-Germain and former striker Neymar while title holders Bayern Munich are up against Italy's Lazio in the last 16 of the Champions League after UEFA's draw was held on Monday.

The clash of Lionel Messi and Barça with last year's runners-up PSG is a repeat of their remarkable meeting at the same stage in 2017 when Barça overcame a 4-0 first leg loss to beat the French club 6-1 in Spain with Neymar scoring twice for the Catalans.

Barcelona stopped the rot — for the time being — by defeating 18th-place Levante 1-0 at the Camp Nou on Sunday to climb to eighth in LaLiga. The home side put 13 shots on target but the only one that counted was Lionel Messi’s angled finish in the 76th-minute following Frenkie de Jong’s well-weighted ball.

On Wednesday, Jan Oblak’s mere presence seemed to terrify RB Salzburg players who even thought about taking a shot on goal. The Slovenian keeper recorded a clean sheet as Atlético Madrid won to ensure a place in the Champions League knockout rounds. On Saturday, a Jan Oblak own goal vs Real Madrid showed even the best keepers in the world get unlucky sometimes.

It’s days like this when you see Sergio Ramos, Luka Modrić and Karim Benzema laugh in the face of Champions League elimination that you truly appreciate how incredible this side was between 2013 and 2018.

The 36th and perhaps final meeting between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ended fittingly at the Camp Nou on Tuesday with Juventus strolling to a 3-0 win against a sad, soft and directionless Barcelona. It’s all too evident why Messi — like Ronaldo before him at Real Madrid — is ready to move on.

With the entire globe tuning in to watch Lionel Messi play Cristiano Ronaldo for perhaps the final time, who could’ve predicted that the first half between Barcelona and Juventus would be dominated by dueling Americans Sergiño Dest and Weston McKennie?

Juve controlled possession at the Camp Nou in the opening 45 minutes, so it was Dest who featured most heavily for Barcelona on both defense and with the ball — only Miralem Pjanić had more touches for Barça.

In the history of the game, no player has captured both the UEFA Champions League and AFC Champions League in their career. Wouldn’t it be fitting if Andrés Iniesta — a four-time UCL winner and the most decorated Spanish footballer of all time — became the first?