Iniesta was finally calling time on a Barcelona career that began 22 years ago, a time in which he was won the Champions League four times to go with a host of other trophies. He started the game in his usual midfield position as Ernesto Valverde named a mixed lineup.
Yerry Mina partnered Pique in defence while Lionel Messi once again started on the bench. The Argentine is still being rested ahead of the World Cup.
The game itself passed by largely without incident, although there were two big talking points. At the end of a first half that had seen little by way of goalmouth action, Raul Navas slid in with a nasty challenge on Ousmane Dembele, crunching the Frenchman’s ankle.
Dembele was in obvious pain, and Navas can consider himself lucky to have only seen a yellow card. The former Dortmund striker did play ten minutes of the second half, but was quickly withdrawn to get some ice put on the ankle, with risks wanting to be taken.
The second was the only goal of the match, and if you could construct your typical Philippe Coutinho goal this would be it. He collected the ball on the left, cut inside and curled a lovely effort from 25 yards in off the near post.
With Barca in the lead, all that was left was for Iniesta to get the send off he deserved. He was subbed off with 10 minutes to go to a rapturous applause. Xavi was in the crowd and could be seen giving him an ovation.
Sociedad played their part by not scoring, and just like that a wonderful career and another La Liga season have come to an end. Iniesta departs for an as yet unknown destination, via a World Cup in Russia, while Barcelona are tasked with replacing him.
He leaves a side that went one game short of an unprecedented unbeaten season, but the rift he will leave could take a generation to replace. After the final whistle, there was not an empty seat in the house as everyone stayed for the celebrations and a tribute to their ‘infinite’ number eight.