Barcelona strengthened its leadership position in the Spanish First Division soccer rankings after battling back from a two-goal deficit to trounce Real Sociedad on their home turf, where they had not won in more than 10 years.

The Catalan squad had not managed a La Liga victory at Anoeta Stadium, in the Basque Country, since 2007, and early on it looked like that unfortunate history would remain intact with Real Sociedad going up by two goals.

First, it was William Jose knocking in a header on an assist by Xabi Prieto in the 10th minute, and then it was Juanmi Jimenez's turn in the 33rd minute, when he fired a shot that deflected off Sergi Roberto and swept by the out-of-position Marc-Andre ter Stegen for the second tally.

But Barcelona managed to wake up five minutes later, when Paulinho moved forward from midfield and popped Luis Suarez's pass in, thus getting Barca on the board, and it was Suarez who sank the splendid equalizer five minutes into the second half on a pass by Lionel Messi.

In minute 70, it was Suarez again after a header forward pass by Thomas Vermaelen that found him alone and perfectly positioned to drill a shot past goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli in heavy rain for the 3-2.

And Messi put the icing on the cake with six minutes to go when he sank a free kick before the 23,277 fans on hand at Anoeta.

In the 19th week of La Liga action, the halfway point in the season, Messi now remains the First Division scoring leader with 17 goals, while Suarez has 13.

Barca - undefeated so far this season - is nine points ahead of Atletico Madrid in the standings, with Valencia 11 points back and Real Madrid, the defending champs, horrendously down by 19 points.