La Liga: Fans chant Messi's name after Barcelona's 4-2 victory against Real Sociedad

Ever since Lionel Messi's departure from Camp Nou got confirmed, several fans have expected Barcelona to fall apart. During Barcelona's opening fixture against Real Sociedad, while several Barca fans chanted Messi's name in the stadium, one of the La Liga giant's captains, Gerard Pique, proved that life without the club legend still exists. Pique opened the scoring against Sociedad in the match as Barcelona convincingly defeated La Real 4-2. A brace from Martin Braithwaite and a late goal in stoppage time from Sergi Roberto added to Pique's opening goal helped Barcelona show they're good without Messi, for now. This was their first competitive match in the post-Messi era and the team played well despite not having the Argentine maestro.

Around the 10th minute of the match, the fans at Camp Nou chanted Messi's name as an ode to the Argentine superstar who wore the number 10 for the Blaugrana. There were banners also out in support of Messi with one of them reading "Forever grateful to Messi." A small minority of boos could also be heard as some fans were not happy with the departure, whether they were directed at Messi or the Barcelona board for letting him leave is not sure.

Pique talks about moving on from Messi

In an interview after their win, Pique spoke about Messi's departure and how the team needs to keep going, and that he is convinced the team is going to compete for all the titles they participate in.

"I don't have to explain what Leo represents, we all know it," Pique told Movistar. "He's the most important player in the history of this club and in the history of football. But all things must pass, we have to keep going. I think we have a good level, we'll be very competitive. I'm convinced we'll compete for all the trophies until the end."

Koeman was surprised by the departure of Messi despite knowing about it

In an interview with ESPN before the match against La Real, the head coach of Barca, Ronald Koeman, mentioned that he was aware of the difficulties faced by the club and Messi but, was still surprised the day the club announced Messi's departure.

"I knew there was a difficult situation between the club and Leo Messi and the league to have the possibilities to keep Messi in the club," Koeman added. "It takes a long time, but I was also surprised by the day and the moment that I heard that he was finished playing for Barcelona. And I knew the financial situation of the club made it more difficult."

He then added that they have a host of new players and that they need to move forward. "We have new players in and we have to move forward, and we have time for that. We have young players in the squad this season, and it's also for the future, we are working on the future of this club, and it's really important to have our focus on this and not focus on what happened in the last few days."

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