Barcelona put behind them a troubled week to beat Real Sociedad 4-2 in their first game of the new season.

Barcelona's off-field issues have filled front pages of various newspapers over the past month or so culminating in the departure of Lionel Messi to PSG last week.

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Financial constraints meant that Barcelona could neither register new players nor re-sign the world's best player even after he agreed to take a 50% pay-cut. 

On Friday, Gerard Pique agreed to sacrifice part of his wages to enable Barcelona to register new players; Eric Garcia and Memphis Depay and it was the latter who provided the assist for Pique to head home the first goal after 19 minutes.

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"It means a lot to me," said Pique of his wage sacrifice after the game. "I have grown up here, I played here for a long time and lived here for most of my life. It was the gesture that was required.''

Other captains of the club; Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto are widely expected to follow Pique's lead and take pay-cuts.

Pique added, ''I have been in contact with the other captains and they will take the same steps soon. It was a question of timing that I did it first but we are all prepared to make the necessary adjustments.''

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Eric Garcia's high press forced Adnan Januzaj into an error from which Frenkie De Hong crossed for Martin Braithwaite to score his first LaLiga goal since December last year.

Braithwaite, who could still leave this summer, made it 3-0 on the hour mark when Jordi Alba's cross was palmed into his path by the goalkeeper.

Barcelona was coasting to victory until a flurry of changes and some poor defending allowed Sociedad back into the contest.

Julen Lobete made it 3-1 on 82 minutes before Mikel Oyarzabal's sublime free-kick five minutes later ensured a nervy ending.

But Sergi Roberto calmed the nerves on 91 minutes with a fourth goal.

Barcelona doesn't seem to be short of firepower even with their talisman Messi having left.

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