With an 11-point lead over Barcelona before the game, Friday night’s kick-off gave Carlo Ancelotti’s men a chance to realistically end the race for the name.
The Italian opted to rest some of his star players, with Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham the star names left on the bench, while Kepa Arrizabalaga was given an infrequent start with his last start in January.
But they started when Real Sociedad ruled the early ownership with Takefusa Kubo, the former Real Madrid youngster between 2019 and 2022, inches away from opening the scoring.
Kepa had to be smart to push the Japanese winger close to the post after being discovered through Mikel Oyarzabal. A few minutes later, the Basque playmaker went down to the penalty area to ask for a penalty, but the referee cancelled his whistle after a slight collision with Fran García.
But that didn’t discourage La Real, who continued to show their artistic strength with Oyarzabal. The Spanish foreigner made a sublime nutmeg pass to Eder Militao before feeding Benat Turrientes, who fired in from just 20 yards.
Despite the heavy pressure, Real Madrid took the lead shortly before the 30th minute. Dani Carvajal found the net through Aurelien Tchouameni with a great diagonal pass and the low cross from behind wreaked havoc on Igor Zubeldia, who couldn’t prevent Guler from scoring just his Purpose of the moment for the club.
Just three minutes later, the home side thought they had equalised thanks to Kubo after Tchouameni stole the ball from the edge of his domain through Barrenetxea. But after a VAR review, referee José Luis Munuera Montero disallowed the goal for a foul on the Frenchman.
The festival failed to generate the same point of excitement after the break, while the rain continued to fall in San Sebastian, Real Sociedad continued to press for the equaliser.
Kepa, once back, showed his intelligent reflexes to counter Turrientes and Ancelotti, worried about the performance, reacted by bringing on Vini Jr and Federico Valverde.
Oyarzabal then went home after a deflected ball, but the assistant referee flagged it offside. And the same guy can simply watch anxiously as his effort beat Kepa, only for the latter to bounce inches off the post.
Real Madrid were in a good moment that night, but with three problems and a blank sheet, Ancelotti’s men are heading towards the title with games remaining.
© Unidad Editorial Información Deportiva, S. L. U. All rights reserved.
Follow