Robert Lewandowski and Barcelona impress against Real Sociedad, but did Ousmane Dembélé escape red card?

By Ben Morse, CNN

Updated 1106 GMT (1906 HKT) August 22, 2022

Robert Lewandowski celebrates scoring Barcelona's third goal against Real Sociedad.

(CNN)Robert Lewandowski and his new Barcelona teammates showed how dangerous they might be this season with a thumping 4-1 victory over Real Sociedad on Sunday, but it wasn't without controversy.

Lewandowski, signed from Bayern Munich this summer, scored his first Barça goal in the opening minute of the game, only for Alexander Isak to equalize five minutes later. With the scores level, France international Ousmane Dembélé appeared to catch Sociedad defender Aihen Muñoz in the face with his elbow. Dembélé avoided a red card and, in a cruel twist of fate, scored Barcelona's second goal of the game after a sumptuous backheel assist from substitute Ansu Fati. Fati's introduction in the second half proved even more important as the 19-year-old laid on a plate Lewandowski's second goal of the evening, before grabbing his own goal to make it 4-1. Read MoreAfter a tumultuous offseason, with financial maneuvers and struggles to register players — defender Jules Koundé has still not been registered having signed from Sevilla — as the Barcelona website put it after the victory: «It's all starting to click!»Lewandowski himself was full of praise for his new teammates after scoring his first two goals for the Catalan club. «The first goal that I score for a new team always goes for my father, who's watching from the sky,» he said after the game. «It was incredible, I'm very happy and proud of the team because, in the second half, we were playing really well and we scored four goals. Now, we go back to Barcelona and we'll enjoy it for the next few days.»He added: «The first game [against