Real Sociedad beat Celta and reinforces its leadership

The Real Sociedad reaped the victory against Celta (0-2) in Balaídos this Thursday in the match corresponding to the 11th journey of LaLiga Santander and leads the standings solo with 24 points, three more than Real Madrid (second), Sevilla (third) and Betis (fourth).

The home team created two clear scoring chances in the first five minutes: Nolito sent his shot wide after a quick counterattack by the home team in minute 2, while after minutes later the goalkeeper Ryan He avoided Celta’s goal after clearing a shot from Denis Suárez from inside the area after receiving a pass from Hugo Mallo. Real Sociedad’s response came in the 12th minute on two occasions, but Januzaj found no goal after a good play by Portu, and goalkeeper Dituro avoided the txuri-urdin goal by deflecting Isak’s shot.

In the first fifteen minutes, Celta and Real Sociedad enjoyed two scoring chances each, but later they were not able to generate danger in the rival goal, until with one minute to rest Ryan avoided the goal of the Vigo team; the Australian goalkeeper cleared a powerful shot from Denis Suárez and immediately responded to Santi Mina’s shot by sending the ball to the corner.

At the start of the second half, Ryan was once again the protagonist after clearing a shot from Brais Méndez. In the 54th minute, Real came out on the counter, Portu gave a good pass to Januzaj, Dituró deflected the Belgian’s shot, but the rebound fell to a Isak who did not forgive and scored the 0-1.

After the goal of the txuri-urdin team, Celta had a double chance that Ryan ruined; first he won a heads up against Iago Aspas, and then he deflected Brais Méndez’s header. The home team took possession of the ball and launched the attack, while the Real defended in a low block, hoping to go on the counterattack. And the San Sebastian team had the opportunity to run in the 65th minute, but Isak ended the counterattack with a shot that found no goal.

A Celta dominated that brought danger to Real’s goal, and in the 75th minute the referee invalidated the goal scored by Brais Méndez because the Galician team player made the shot offside. Five minutes later, in a corner, the txuri-urdin team scored the second goal: Merino finished off, the ball hit Elustondo’s back and the 0-2 went up to the scoreboard.

Elustondo’s goal left the game sentenced. Celta tried to shorten the gap in the final stretch, but Real Sociedad gave them no options and took all three points.