Real Sociedad was left out of the Europa League this Thursday after clearly dominating their game against Roma, whom they could not squeeze much and made them suffer just enough to make the 2-0 good in the first leg.
The first part was played at the pace set by José Mourinho’s team, a specialist in maintaining favorable scores, stopping all local arrivals projected in long balls to Sorloth that the Norwegian striker failed to give continuity.
Spinazzola, in the first approach with Roman danger, brought concern to the stands and referee Kovacs admonished Zubeldia with only 10 minutes left, which jeopardized the future actions of the central txuri urdin and confirmed a hot game with three yellow cards in the first quarter of an hour.
Mourinho manages well in stormy waters and so does his team, Real could not play their game with Silva and Merino handcuffed in areas where they do not generate danger, so Rui Patricio would live a good part of this period in complete peace of mind.
Brais Méndez and Merino would star in the only serious sparks when the Gipuzkoan team opted for a greater offensive vocation and forced the Portuguese goalkeeper to intervene in the best moments of the San Sebastian team before the break.
Fear gripped the Reale Arena in injury time, Smalling entered the local area with everything from a corner kick, scored and celebrated but the referee consulted the VAR and saw the hand of the midfielder Smalling to invalidate the goal and give new life to the txuri urdin team.
Sorloth would not take advantage of it in one of the clearest chances of the match at the beginning of the second period, Brais pulled the glove that he has on his left foot and left a very clear ball for the Norwegian’s shot against Rui Patricio, although his header did not even go to goal and spoiled a great opportunity to corner Roma.
Real’s best game arrived, to which they have resorted for a good part of the season and the basis of their successes, but Mourinho’s team also remained comfortable in that football, well protected behind, they did not see the result in danger and waited for their moment to give the decisive blow.
Mikel Oyarzabal would crash a ball into the crossbar that could have changed the sign of the last stretch of the clash, the ball was inches away from crossing the goal line and that was the end of the gunpowder for the Basque team that, despite insisting and not going down guard, fell short of his goal and will now have to focus on securing a Champions League place for next season.
