The Anoeta seeks revenge

This evening Barça face one of their biggest tests as we move into the business end of the season. Not only are they up against a decent side, their recent record at the Anoeta has left something to be desired. Fuel to the fire also comes from La Real’s palpable thirst for revenge following their elimination in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey. In San Sebastián there is still an aftertaste from that defeat following a hotly disputed refereeing decision in the first-leg that still smarts. A difficult setting awaits Martino’s men.
Tonight’s game at the Anoeta has all the ingredients to make it a clichéd ‘banana skin’. Barça go into the game on the back of a convincing mid-week win at Manchester City in the last-sixteen of the Champions League. Everything appears to be in the ascendency at the Camp Nou and history would point to a rudimentary three points for Los Azulgranas, yet the game in San Sebastián is likely to be a much tougher prospect than when the fixture list was published. Any mistake made could be particularly costly, as Tata himself said: “At the very least, a poor performance in San Sebastián would be careless.”

Canales. One of the biggest dilemmas for Jagoba Arrasate is whether or not to start with Canales given that his inclusion would mean a more open game, which could potentially play right in to Barcelona’s hands. With their usual line-up, Real Sociedad have not lost at home since September, when they came off second best to Atlético Madrid.

Neymar could return to the starting XI today
Neymar picked up an injury on 16 January against Getafe, forcing him to miss eight full matches before returning late on against Rayo a week ago. In that game he got his name on the score sheet and on Tuesday, against Man City, he provided the assist for Dani Alves’s goal. Everything points to Neymar being involved from the start and reigniting his partnership with Leo Messi, a partnership that was also stalled because of the Argentine's injury. In Barça’s Friday training session, Martino had both teamed up with their top scorer away from home, Pedro, who was rested in Manchester.