• La Liga

Moyes: I've long dreamed of beating Barcelona

David Moyes said he had long dreamed of beating Barcelona after Real Sociedad edged the Catalan giants 1-0 in La Liga on Sunday night.

Moyes is in Spain to resurrect his career after a disastrous spell in charge of Manchester United lasted just nine months.

And new side Sociedad boss handed Moyes one of the biggest wins of his managerial career when Barcelona left-back Jordi Alba headed into his own net inside two minutes for the only goal of the game.

In his post-match press conference, Moyes said his players had put in a "fantastic" defensive performance to gain a deserved three points.

Madrid's winning streak ends

Gareth Bale, Dani Carvajal and Isco trudge off the Mestalla Stadium pitch © Getty Images

• Real Madrid's run of 22 consecutive victories came to an end on Sunday with a 2-1 defeat to Valencia in La Liga.
• Madrid led through Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty, but second-half goals from Antonio Barragan and Nicolas Otamendi saw the European champions beaten for the first time since September - and manager Carlo Ancelotti said defeat "was going to happen sooner or later".
• He added: "We are well placed in La Liga. We are in a lot of competitions. This defeat will not affect us because behind the scenes we are working very well. We have been doing well up until now, and we will do well again after this defeat. We should not forget what we have done."
• Sunday was the first time Barcelona and Real Madrid lost on the same day since April 30, 2011.
• Next up in a busy start to 2015 for Madrid is Wednesday's Copa del Rey last-16 first-leg game at Atletico Madrid, for who returning hero Fernando Torres could make his second debut.

"We have talked about Barcelona when I was at past clubs," he said. "We used to watch them, like in the Champions League final, with admiration.

"We always said, 'My goodness, how would you get a result against Barca?' Tonight I got that opportunity.

"It is quite similar to the early days at Everton," he said. "How to get a result against likes of Arsenal or Liverpool at that time, or Manchester United? We did not always get results, but we got some, built confidence and got better.

"We hope that will be the same here. It is slightly different in that just over a year ago [Sociedad] were in the Champions League. This year the Europa League, and now the job is to get them back there."

"It was great to play against Barca and get such a great result. The players were fantastic against such a good team, did brilliantly well. It was a great result for us, a really strong defensive performance."

Luis Enrique had surprised many pundits by leaving both Messi and Neymar on the bench, then bringing on both South American superstars to no avail with his side trailing in the second half.

"I expected Messi and Neymar to be on the bench," he said. "I have managed a very big club, and the big games for big teams come later in the year. You have to have everybody ready and fresh.

"Their coach made the right decision, he knows his players better than anybody. And he has a really strong squad, those who played tonight are really good players. In his position I would have done the same thing."

Sociedad have conceded regularly late in recent games, but Barcelona only really threatened late on when ex-Liverpool striker Luis Suarez missed two half chances. Moyes admitted it had been a long 88 minutes on the home bench.

"I said to [assistant coach] Billy [McKinlay] when we scored that we could do with the ref blowing up. We made one or two opportunities as well. But we knew it would be a long night, they had great ball retention. Xavi was fantastic, did not give a ball away all night.

"They have so many good players, but for me it was a great night, great result, but more importantly for club and the team."

The result means Sociedad have now beaten European champions Real Madrid, La Liga holders Atletico Madrid and now Barcelona at their Anoeta Stadium.

David Moyes said he expected Neymar and Lionel Messi to be on the Barcelona bench © Getty Images

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