Full time: Real Sociedad 0-3 Real Madrid
Peep peep! An easy win for Real Madrid to start the season. It was topped and tailed by Gareth Bale, and the youngster Asensio scored a classy second just before half-time. Thanks for your company; night.
GOAL! Real Sociedad 0-3 Real Madrid (Bale 90+4)
Gareth Bale finishes what he started, bursting beyond a static defence to go round Rulli and score with the last kick of the game.
90+3 min Rulli makes another good save down to his left, this time from James’s low drive.
90 min There will be four minutes of added futility.
87 min It’s all kicked off here, and in a surprising development Sergio Ramos is involved. He and Yuri are booked, though I still don’t know why. Yuri’s noggin has gone completely; he looks like he would happily do a stretch just to land a right-hander on Ramos’s satisfied coupon.
It was much ado about little. Ramos and Marcelo shoved the teenager Oyarzabal for no particular reason, which set Yuri off, and after that there was a bit of pushing and shoving from both sides. File under ‘modern football.
Updated
86 min Sociedad want a penalty after a tangle of legs between William Jose and Casemiro, who falls on the ball with his hand. The referee gives a foul to Madrid.
84 min A great chance for Sociedad. Oyarzabal makes an excellent, Ian Rush-style bent run onto a through pass and lumbers into the box, but Marcelo does superbly to get back and block his close-range shot.
Updated
80 min Sergio Ramos is given good reason to go down when Oyarzabal, lining up a left-footed shot, gets a slight touch on the ball with his standing foot and thus belabours first fresh air and then Ramos’s leg.
79 min Sociedad bring on a striker for a defender, Carlos Vela for Martinez.
77 min Real make their final substitution, with Whatever Happened To James Rodriguez replacing Morata.
73 min There was an off-the-ball incident a couple of minutes ago in which Yuri seemed to headbutt Morata, who went down in the contemporary style. On reflection it wasn’t a headbutt, more a coming together of heads. File under ‘modern football.
Updated
72 min Another Sociedad substitution, with Xabi Prieto replacing Juanmi. Madrid also make a change; Kroos off, Isco on.
69 min In fact it’s Ramos, who curls it into the wall. It comes to Kovacic, who hits a brutish half-volley from distance that is beautifully palmed round by the diving Rulli.
68 min Bale is bundled over just outside the area by Zaldua, who is booked. Bale will take the free-kick...
68 min Both teams know this game is over. They kind of knew about 72 seconds, when Bale scored, and probably after one second, when the match kicked off.
67 min “That Sociedad keeper is on loan from Man City,” writes Dan ucas. “Something something pass completion stats.”
Pass-completion stats make me want to do what MTV made Beck want to do.
66 min A real substitution: Lucas Vazquez replaces the impressive youngster Asensio.
62 min Asensio slips Bale clear on the right of the area with a nice pass. The keeper Rulli comes a long way to meet him, and ends up outside his box when Bale’s attempted cross hits him and deflects to safety.
56 min A Sociedad substitution, with David Concha replaced by William Jose.
55 min Morata draws another save from Rulli after another superb, swerving run. The rebound comes to Kroos, who creams a volley against the bar!
54 min Morata is booked for diving. It looked a penalty at first, although replays suggest the referee might have got it right.
53 min This is a good spell for Sociedad, probably their best of the match. They are harassing Madrid a lot more than in the first half.
50 min Casemiro is booked for a zesty tackle on David Concha.
48 min Kovacic breaks into the area on the left, draws Rulli from his line and plays it across the box, but Martinez slides to put it behind for a corner.
47 min An early opportunity for Sociedad. Zurutuza picks a loose ball and charges into the box before drilling a low cross towards Bergara, who goes over and appeals for a penalty after a touch from behind by Carvajal. There were some contact, but probably not a sufficiently strong shove for it to be a penalty.
46 min Peep peep! Sociedad begin another 45 minutes of futility.
Half time: Real Sociedad 0-2 Real Madrid
Madrid are in total control thanks to a good goal from Gareth Bale and a fine one from Asensio. There aren’t many galacticos in the line-up but they are playing beautifully. See you in 10 minutes.
Updated
44 min Casemiro heads over Marcelo’s cross from six yards. He should have scored. Real could match Barcelona’s six goals here.
GOAL! Real Sociedad 0-2 Real Madrid (Asensio 40)
This is a lovely finish from the highly promising Marco Asensio. Varane drills a 50-yard pass from right to left to put Asensio behind a dithering defence. His first touch is immaculate, controlling it into the space in front, and with his second he dinks it teasingly over Rulli and into the net. That was beautiful.
37 min Morata goes on another fantastic run, leaving two defenders on the floor behind him after they run into each other. Eventually he whips a right-footed shot from the left of the six-yard box that is beaten away by Rulli. As the Sky commentator, he is keen to score on his second Real debut. Morata wants that goal Lebowski.
33 min “Kyle Snyder has become the youngest ever American to win wrestling gold at the Olympics,” writes Tom Lutz. “Snyder is just 20 but took out the experienced Khetag Goziumov from Azerbaijan, who is 13 years his senior. Goziumov had won bronze at the last two Olympics. The signs were there early for Snyder - he won all 179 of his matches at high school, and is the current world champion at 97kg.”
But what are his pass-completion stats like? Can he play in goal?
32 min At the other end, Kroos’s flighted kick evades Rulli’s attempted punch and is headed over the vacant net by the backpedalling Ramos. It wasn’t easy for him to control the header.
30 min What a chance for Sociedad! Marcelo’s sloppy pass goes to David Concha, who plays a gorgeous angled through ball for Illarramendi. He was clear with only Casilla to beat from 10 yards, but inexplicably decided to square it towards nobody in particular. He knew instantly it was a mistake, and kicked the post in frustration.
29 min So anyway, about that Night Manager ending.
27 min Sociedad have no choice but to play like the away team, counter-attacking whenever they can. It’s a very one-sided game, although Rulli has only had that one save to make.
22 min Real Madrid are cruising through the game, and their biggest threat is probably complacency. It shouldn’t be this easy in an elite league. It’s like watching the Premier League in the late 2000s.
20 min A fine save from Rulli, who plunges to his right to turn Kroos’s precise 20-yard shot round the post.
18 min “Regarding your intro statement ‘Real have scored over 100 league goals in seven of those eight seasons, which shows you just how hard it is to win this thing of theirs,’” begins Shaun Wilkinson. “A less favourable interpretation, supported by yesterday’s result and the beginning of this game, would be that it shows how easy it is for Barca and Real to score goals.”
Well yes, there is that.
16 min A fine run from Morata almost leads to a second, but his left-footed shot nicks off the stretching Martinez and loops over the bar.
15 min Ramos miscontrols a pass on the halfway line, allowing Oyarzabal to break clear of the defence. Casilla comes a long way out of his area to clear the danger.
Updated
12 min This game has the slight feel of a pre-season friendly, with lots of slow, uninterrupted passing moves from both sides.
10 min As play goes on, there is extended applause for Dalian Atkinson, who played here with John Aldridge and Kevin Richardson in that excellent early 1990s side.
9 min Madrid look slick and confident, a state of mind probably helped by the early goal. Sociedad look good in possession but vulnerable without.
6 min Sociedad win their first corner, down the left. Illarramendi’s inswinger is headed away superbly at the near post by Varane (I think).
GOAL! Real Sociedad 0-1 Real Madrid (Bale 2)
Well that didn’t take long. Gareth Bale gives Real the lead after 71 seconds with a cracking header from Carvajal’s right-wing cross. He got between defenders by the penalty spot and bulleted his header into the corner. That’s a fine goal.
Updated
1 min Peep peep! Real Madrid kick off from left to right. For those reading on the internet, they are in black Sociedad are in blue and white stripes.
Team news
Real Sociedad (4-2-3-1) Rulli; Zaldua, Mikel, I Martinez, Yuri; Illarramendi, Bergara; David Concha, Zurutuza, Oyarzabal; Juanmi.
Real Madrid (4-3-3) Casilla; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Marceloa; Kovacic, Casemiro, Kroos; Bale, Morata, Asensio.
Preamble
Hello. Not for the first time, Real Madrid are in the strange position of being the best team in Europe and the second-best in Spain. They won the Champions League last season for the second time in three years, but they have won only one La Liga in the eight years since Pep Guardiola took over at Barcelona and changed the world, and Spanish football.
Real have scored over 100 league goals in seven of those eight seasons, which shows you just how hard it is to win this thing of theirs. The champions Barcelona got off to a slow start yesterday, edging past Real Betis 6-2. Real, who start with a tricky trip to Real Sociedad, will be keen to match their result, if not necessarily the six goals. Their season hasn’t even started, and already they can’t afford to drop points.
Kick off is 7.15pm BST.
Updated
Rob will be here soon. In the meantime: here’s Sid’s season preview
Spain’s football stadiums will be full this season – and that’s an order. Well, they’ll look full, anyway. The Spanish league will fine clubs whose grounds aren’t at 75% capacity, double for those who don’t reach 50%. The part of their grounds that are visible on TV screens, that is.
There will be someone there whose job it is to count and sanctions will apply to the stand and the corners opposite the master camera – the televisual U, it’s called. The bit that can be seen. As for the bit that can’t be seen, well, that bit can’t be seen.
For those clubs who are worried that they might not be able to fill their stadiums, fear not: the league will help. By subsidising tickets? By laying on travel? By scheduling games at fan-friendly times? Don’t be daft. This weekend Deportivo Alavés return to the first division: they play at 10.30pm on a Sunday night, three and a half hours away. No, the league will help by providing tarpaulin to cover empty stands behind the cameras. So that’s alright, then.
