La Real achieves its first victory in Europe almost behind closed doors

After a draw at Nice (1-1) and the defeat in Anoeta against Anderlecht (1-2), Real Sociedad achieved its first victory in the Europa League this Thursday against Maccabi Tel Aviv, almost on goal. closed. In the Partizan stadium, practically empty, with just over a hundred Real and Maccabi fans in ‘exile’ from Belgrade, Imanol Alguacil’s team, although they ended up suffering, beat the Israeli team thanks to goals from Jon Pacheco and Sergio Gómez, who certified their superiority against a rival that has not yet scored a single point.

Just five minutes after the VAR was in charge of annulling Sadiq’s goal for offside by Aguerd for alleged interference with the goalkeeper, who swallowed the ball, the Nigerian striker rebelled with his goal pass to Sergio Gómez. The Catalan footballer from Real had just taken the field and was in charge of sentencing a duel that became complicated at the beginning of the second half, and also at the end, after Turgeman’s header. Before that goal with which Maccabi reduced the gap, which ended with ten, when things were worst came two consecutive goals from Real, although the first was incomprehensibly annulled by video refereeing.

In a key match for Real that was reminiscent of the pandemic era due to the absence of an audience in a stadium with a capacity for 33,000 spectators, the San Sebastian team showed two faces, the solid and dominant one in the first half, although then they lacked the upper hand to expand the score, and the worrying second, when he played with fire, allowed Maccabi to grow and conceded too much in defense. The victory became complicated for Real with Turgeman’s goal, after failing to calm down and regain control at 0-2, the San Sebastian team also being harmed by the changes.

La Real did emerge victorious at the beginning of the second half against Maccabi’s push, which had two good chances in that phase, but the Txuri-Urdin team once again recovered and created danger. Above all, through Kubo, who did not play on the right, where Oyarzabal did, but on the left, although the main weapon of the Gipuzkoa team was the set piece. Thus, following a corner taken by Brais Méndez and culminated by a header from Pacheco, Real soon opened the way to victory, and also from the corner managed to disallow Sadiq’s goal at the hour of a match in which the The San Sebastian team failed to convince, although it did get three well-deserved and very important points.

The European debut of the youth squad Unai Marrero, who occupied the goal in place of the injured Álex Remiro, did not end without conceding a goal, because in another arrival of Maccabi when Real seemed too confident with two goals ahead, Turgeman’s head caused the nervousness in the txuri-urdin team. Not even with the expulsion of Davida for a double yellow in the 88th minute was Real able to breathe, although in the final stretch Maccabi did not create clear opportunities to have been able to ruin the work of Imanol’s team.