Match report: Gareth Bale seals Real Madrid victory over Real Sociedad in La Liga
And that’ll be us for the evening. Cheers for reading, and be excellent to each other.
Good fun, that. Sociedad lose for the first time this season, and a Madrid side shorn of some key players get a victory that will encourage them enormously. Bale didn’t do a huge amount until his goal, but what a goal it was, powering through after giving his marker a five-yard start. Probably won’t be quite so many questions about his form now.
Full-time: Real Sociedad 1-3 Real Madrid
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
90 mins + 4: Ramos, with his team 3-1 up in the fourth minute of stoppage time, powers forward through the middle from centre-back, slips it wide to Bale whose cross looks to complete the one-two, but it doesn’t quite come off.
90 mins + 3: Hernandez is eventually forced off, and Nacho Fernandez comes on for the last few moments of the match.
90 mins: Hernandez is back on but holding that shoulder, and he allows some space for Vela to get in on the right side of the box and shoot...but he skews it wide.
88 mins: Bodies all over the place: Carvahal and Rodrigues collide sliding in for a challenge on the floor, looking like one of those clashes of knees that will make you feel a bit funny. A few seconds earlier Hernandez went for a header and fell awkwardly on his shoulder, and that one looks a little bit more serious...
86 mins: Sub for Madrid: Asensio is off, and Dani Ceballos comes on for the last few minutes.
84 mins: Great defending from Carvahal, who swoops in at the very last as Zurutuza is put through on goal, nipping the ball off the Sociedad man’s toes just as he was about to shoot.
GOA...no, wait, it’s disallowed
83 mins: Asensio slots away a typically adroit finish, but the offside flag goes up. Asensio himself wasn’t off, but Bale was, and he blocked a defender who was trying to get back and stop the effort. Right decision.
82 mins: Vela gets down the left and crosses to the near-post, where Willian tries to turn a goal home but can only put a weak shot at goal. They’re chipping away, but it’s probably too late now.
80 mins: Vela feeds Odriozola on the right, he crosses to the back stick for Agirretxe who barrels through Carvahal and gets over the bar. The Madrid right-back is winded rather, but he’s fine to continue.
76 mins: Final change for Sociedad: Januzaj is off, and Imanol Agirretxe, the big centre-forward who missed last season with injury, is on.
76 mins: Asensio dashes behind the Sociedad defence but his cross from the left, looking for Bale in the middle, is cut out. Vasquez then breaks through on goal, but Rulli gets there just before him.
75 mins: Isco lines up a shot from about 25 yards out, but doesn’t get the dip he needs on it and it goes way over. Meanwhile, trusty old Lucas Vasquez is on for Madrid, replacing the impressive youngster Mayoral.
74 mins: Casemeiro goes down clutching his calf, limps off looking for sympathy/treatment, but should be fine to play on.
71 mins: Woof: a Sociedad corner is half-cleared, it drops to Rodrigues who gets plenty of power on a right-footed volley, but not the requisite direction and it flies wide.
69 mins: Sub for Sociedad: Xavi Prieto is off, and Juanmi - the forgotten forward of Southampton - is on.
68 mins: Free-kick to Sociedad on the right, Januzaj will swing it over. Willian is penalised for a slight nudge on Casemeiro as they go up for the header. Sociedad have a good case to be thoroughly miffed by some of the 50-50 decisions in this game.
65 mins: Careless from Bale: he thinks a ball over the top is going out for a goal-kick, but Rodrigues doesn’t give the cause up and chases it down, eventually winning a corner. Luckily for him, nothing comes of said corner.
64 mins: Booking for Willian: think it was for complaining to the referee after Casemeiro body-checked Vela. Silly all round, really.
61 mins: Brilliant stuff from the Welshman. A long pass over the top looks for Bale, who chases with Rodriguez and outstrips him before gently lifting a finish over the keeper and into the net. Brilliant stuff.
GOAL! Real Sociedad 1-3 Real Madrid (Bale 61)
We’ve barely seen him so far, but...
59 mins: Asensio picks the ball up on the left but skips and lolipops his way down a dead end. At least two teammates despair. Isco then trips Odriozola up, and Sociedad have a free-kick.
57 mins: Canales shoots from outside the area, but leans back and hoofs the thing waaaaaaaay over the bar. And that’s his last action: he’s off, and Carlos Vela is on.
55 mins: Not a surprise that Sociedad have started the season so well: they move the ball around very smartly and quickly, but Odriozola’s attempts to make something of their nice build-up play are stopped by Hernandez.
52 mins: Good stuff from Mayoral. He gets the ball on the left side of the area, fires in a low shot that is parried, and dynamic soul that he is, he’s the first to the rebound, but he can only slice it into the side-netting. Must be a tough old life as a youngster coming through at Madrid: doesn’t matter how well you play, you ain’t getting in the team when everyone’s fit, but this lad is presenting a fine case anyway.
50 mins: A Sociedad corner comes over from the left, Llorente has a free-ish header about 12 yards from goal but Navas holds on, even if his feet were behind his line.
48 mins: Januzaj dinks over a cross from the left, and Sociedad should have a penalty: Xavi Prieto, playing his billionth game for the club after making his debut in 1947, goes for the cross at the back stick but is almost suplexed to the floor by Hernandez. For reasons best known to himself, the referee says no penalty.
46 mins: And we’re away. Asensio crosses from the left but Rulli gathers with relative ease.
We’re back out for the second-half. No changes for either side.
Here’s a half-time activity: why not order the excellent Portrait Of An Icon, by the excellent Daniel Storey, reigning Football Supporters’ Federation writer of the year. It’s a collection of essays on the most important and influential figures in football history - including, for topical reasons, Zinedine Zidane - it’s got a selection of fine illustrations, and if that’s not enough to convince you, money from the sale of each book goes to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. Get stuck in.
That’s half-time, and the Sociedad players are chewing in the ear of the referee as they go off. Getting spicy at the Anoeta. Good game this, though: Madrid probably do deserve the lead, but Sociedad have shows some gumption and a few flashes of decent play, notably from the ultimately very unfortunate Rodrigues down the left. For Madrid, Hernandez down their own left flank has been excellent, and young striker Mayoral has scored one and forced the other, which is a decent effort for just his second league start.
Half-time: Real Sociedad 1-2 Real Madrid
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
45 mins + 1: Januzaj and Ramos go in for a challenge, there’s a small tangle of legs but the former United man is penalised. He’s then doubly-penalised, as he gets a booking for his lengthy complaints.
44 mins: Two shots on goal from a ways out: firstly Modric shoots from the left side, which Rulli pushes away despite it going a yard or so wide, then it breaks to Asensio who has his own effort, but that goes way wide.
43 mins: Hernandez pulls Illaramendi back, but no foul is given for some reason. The ball breaks to Asensio, who is given plenty of space outside the box by Sociedad defenders who clearly like having goals scored against them and feeling bad about life, but this time the shot scoots wide.
41 mins: Booking for Illaramendi, for a broadly pointless cynical pull on Isco’s shirt. I say pointless: Isco was inside his own half. Heading forwards, but in his own half. Illara now has to deal with Modric and Isco on a booking for the rest of the game.
39 mins: Ramos finds himself in attack during open play again, for some reason, but he can’t properly get to a Hernandez cross.
36 mins: Well. Quite a minute. Sociedad nearly take the lead in identical circumstances to their first goal, with Rodrigues volleying a cross to the back post into the ground, but this time it bounces up and hits the bar. Madrid then counter at quite some pace, through Mayoral who muscles out Llorente, which the Sociedad players claim was a foul but it was merely strong play from the young striker. Meanwhile Rodrigues desperately chases the length of the pitch to help defend, Mayoral crosses from the right side of the box but the Sociedad man can only get a toe on the ball and slide it into the net.
GOAL! Real Sociedad 1-2 Real Madrid (Rodrigues 36)
O, cruel fate Kevin Rodrigues.
34 mins: Sociedad keeper Rulli makes a minor hash of two crosses, the second of which results in a corner. That corner is half-dealt with, but Isco picks it up, feeds Asensio down the left who clips it to the back post. Casemeiro is there to head through a thicket of bodies, and Rulli has to make a decent save: it was almost straight at him, but he was unsighted.
32 mins: Actually it was a cameraman: he’s taken off on the stretcher cart thing they use for injured players, with his leg in a brace. Apparently some of the fans in that temporary stand rushed forwards when Sociedad scored and he got caught in the rush. Hopefully he’s OK. The game continues.
30 mins: The game is being held up for a few minutes. Not really sure what’s happened, other than a fan appears to have been either injured or taken ill in that temporary stand behind the Sociedad goal.
28 mins: The full-backs combine: right-back Odriozola scampers down the flank, puts over a cross where left-back Rodrigues powers in from the other flank, volleys first-time with not a huge amount of power, but it slips through Navas’s fingers and trickles into the net. They’ve barely been in the game, but now they’re level.
GOAL! Real Sociedad 1-1 Real Madrid (Rodrigues 28)
Well if the Madrid goal was out of nothing, that was really out of nothing.
27 mins: Oh no...
Cameraman with the truck stick on a #Chiefs cheerleader pic.twitter.com/z6pUrrYctB
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) September 17, 2017
26 mins: The corner comes to nothing. Which reads like a disproportionately bleak sentence. Sorry. I know it’s a Sunday evening and many of you will be gripped by The Fear. Will try to keep it light forthwith.
25 mins: Bale’s been quiet. Largely playing from the right, he tries to cut across the box and work a bit of space for a shot, but he can’t quite manage it. The ball does eventually go out for a Madrid corner, though.
22 mins: Brilliant ball down the right by Carvahal to Asensio, but his low right-footed cross is cut out.
19 mins: Sergio Ramos finds himself in the Sociedad box, he controls a ball into the box on his thigh, flicks it up as if he’s going to try that overhead kick again but he’s hauled down, forcing him to lay it off to the oncoming Mayoral, who doesn’t hit the volley entirely cleanly, but he was only seven or eight yards out, so it goes in anyway. Madrid lead.
GOAL! Real Sociedad 0-1 Real Madrid (Mayoral 19)
And from very little, they’re ahead.
18 mins: Sociedad win a corner from the right, it’s half-cleared to the edge of the box then makes its way out to Willian on the left side of the box, but he sort of hits his shot into the ground and it bounces/scuffs to Navas, who claims it easily.
16 mins: There’s Hernandez again, brilliantly controlling a high pass out to the left, muscling his way past Rodrigues and cutting back to Asensio. A goal looks on, but Asensio’s shot is blocked. Madrid haven’t missed Marcelo so far, which will tell you all you need to know about Hernandez’s performance.
13 mins: Theo Hernandez drives from left-back into the Sociedad area, he tumbles as he tries to break between Canales and Illaramendi, but the Former Madrid Sandwich is not deemed to have taken him down, so no penalty.
11 mins: Madrid’s away kit is nice. Lovely and clean, nice shade of a turqoisey blue for the trim, and manages to avoid the frequent problem of a black football kit looking like something from the Sports Direct bargain bin. As an aside, nothing much is happening in the game so far.
8 mins: Modric plays one of those exquisitely perfect passes down the right channel that he’s probably played at least five million times in his career, but Carvahal wastes his work of art by pulling the cross back behind the waiting attackers in the middle.
6 mins: Isco tries to loop a cross over from the left, but it loops too far and goes into that temp stand. It remains weird. Sociedad advance to their attacking third for the first time, but nothing comes of it.
4 mins: Nothing much to report in the game so far, by the way. Madrid had most of the ball, no chances to speak of.
3 mins: There’s a weird mini temporary stand thing on the running track in front of the stands but just behind the goal Madrid are attacking in the first half. About seven or eight rows high, it sort of feels like one of those Olympic hockey games or something where they play in venues not usually used for that sport.
1 min: We’re away. Sociedad kick-off, going right to left. For those of you watching in black and white, they’re in blue and white striped shirts, white shorts and white stockings, Madrid are in all black with light blue trim.
Players are in the tunnel. Football is imminent.
Beck’s new one is good. Have a listen before the game starts.
We’ll get this set out from the start: throughout this minute-by-minute Real Sociedad will be referred to as ‘Sociedad’, Real Madrid will be referred to as ‘Madrid’. In order to best avoid confusion. Thanks.
Did you know that Real Madrid, back in 1962, travelled to then-Third Division Crystal Palace to help them launch their floodlights? What an altruistic gesture. Well, sort of: they did it for £10,000, in the days when the word transfer record was £150,000. Here’s what the Guardian had to say about it, anyway:
With no Ronaldo and no Benzema, attention will be paid to Gareth Bale, who hasn’t exactly shown his best form so far this term. By which we mean the Real fans gave him a big booing recently. Zinny Zidane wants a little more from the Welshman, for sure. He said:
Lately the questions are all about Gareth, but each day he feels better. He had four months out of the team, and to return to his best level he will need four more months at least. We must give him time, and we are happy with him. The price puts you up there, you cannot do anything about that, it happened to me when I found it tough in my first months after I came here.
“If Gareth scores twice tomorrow, everyone will be happy. I hope he does and we change what people are thinking about Gareth. We want more from him on the pitch, he does too, but he will be very good very soon, for sure.
“Gareth will play his own role. We must not think that Gareth must step up without Karim and Cristiano. We have many players who can make the difference, each day it is someone else. The pressure does not affect him.”
Team news
Real Sociedad
Rulli; Llorente, Aritz, Odriozola, Rodrigues; Zurutuza, Illaramendi, Xavi Prieto; Januzaj, Canales, Willian. Subs: Ramirez, Zubeldia, Juanmi, Agirretxe, Vela, Pardo, Del la Bella.
Real Madrid
Navas; Carvahal, Ramos, Varane, Hernandez; Modric, Casemeiro; Isco; Mayoral, Bale, Asensio. Subs: Casilla, Nacho, Vasquez, Llorente, Achraf, Ceballos, Franchu.
Preamble
Crisis! Times are hard at Real Madrid. Sure, they’ve won the Champions League for the last two seasons, are managed by a club legend, have one of the greatest players of all time in their ranks and his potential successor warming up very nicely too...but they have drawn two games this season.
We jest, but this could be a sticky one for Zizou and the boys. Cristiano Ronaldo is serving the last game of his ban for wrasslin’ with the ref in the Super Cup, plus Marcelo, Mateo Kovacic, Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema are also missing. Marco Asensio is back, so it’s not all gloomy, but they’re also facing a side in rare form. Real Sociedad have three wins from three in the league, and sashayed to victory in the Europa League this week too, scoring 14 goals in those four games.
“It’s really positive that we are all convinced we can win tomorrow,” said manager Eusebio, showing the sort of confidence you very much need when facing Real, even without their top dogs. Most of these type of games turn out to be fairly sleepy, routine victories for the big dogs of La Liga, but this one might actually be a contest. Stay tuned.
Kick-off: 19.45 BST.
Nick will be here presently.
