Barcelona boss Tito Vilanova refused to criticise his side despite blowing a two-goal lead to suffer their first defeat of the Spanish La Liga season going down to Real Sociedad 3-2 on Saturday.
The Catalans had raced to a two-goal lead courtesy of goals from Lionel Messi and Pedro, before Gonzalo Castro pulled one back prior to the break.
Gerard Pique would be sent off on 56 minutes and that proved costly, as Castro equalised on the hour mark. Imanol Agirretxe netted a dramatic winner in stoppage-time to end Barca’s brilliant league run.
“I have to congratulate Real Sociedad,” said Vilanova.
“I have nothing to criticise my players for, we hit the post twice in the second half and had two more chances, but even when we were 2-0 up, I never thought it was going to be easy.
“If we had scored a third goal, we would have killed the game, but when we were down to 10 men the game changed.”