Barça finally recorded an away victory for the first time in almost a month when they beat Real Sociedad at the Anoeta 2-0 thanks to second half goals from Andres Iniesta and Samuel Eto'o.

Barça had a brilliant start when Xavi diverted a Gio van Bronckhorst drive into the back of the net on 6 minutes, however, the linesman ruled the goal out for offside. Replays couldn't clearly show if Xavi was indeed offside or not.

Samuel Eto'o was the next player to nearly give Barça the lead after a quick counter-attack led to the striker being free on the left hand side of the Barcelona front three but his longish range effort was easily collected by "La Real" keeper Bravo.

Xavi then nearly put Barcelona ahead on 28 minutes when he managed to get to a nice Ronaldinho assist but his shot was fantastically saved by Bravo.

Andres Iniesta then produced the last meaningful chance of the half when he collected a quickly taken corner and dispatched a shot from the edge of the area which Bravo was equal to.

Although Barcelona created several chances in the first half, there was a feeling that something was missing from the Champions.

Rijkaard's half-time team-talk worked wonders. The second half started at a much faster pace and within two minutes of the re-start, Messi picked up the ball on the half way line and squared it inside to Ronaldinho. The playmaker spotted Iniesta's run from midfield, and played a sublime throughball to the young Spaniard who, having broken the offside trap, dribbled past Bravo and placed the ball in the open net.

Shortly after, Messi could have made it 2 after a super jinxing run past several Sociedad players. The pacey youngster cut inside onto his favoured left foot, but his shot narrowly missed the far post.

Moments later, Sociedad almost drew level when Savio, who received the ball on the left hand side, but only managed to find the side netting of Valdés's goal.

Eto'o could have cemented the 3 points after he had a sight of goal, but his shot was brilliantly saved by Bravo's leg to deny the Cameroonian striker.

The game began to settle that, with both sides creating half-chances but neither Barcelona looking likely to kill off the game or Sociedad looking likely to get a much needed draw or win. Several through balls from Ronaldinho split the Sociedad defence, but his teammates were unable to make anything of them.

However 3 minutes from time, Ronaldinho, before being clattered into by two Sociedad players, managed to play a perfect ball from within his own half that once again disected the Sociedad defence. Eto'o latched onto it and encountered a one-on-one with Bravo. Bravo went to his right and Eto'o calmly scooped the ball over the keeper's trailing leg and into the back of the net, securing the win for Barcelona.

The win leaves Barcelona 5 points clear of Sevilla and Real Madrid, who play each other on Sunday evening. Regardless of the result, Barcelona will remain top of la Liga until the next matchday, and are one step closer to winning their third conesutive title.