Real Sociedad is obliged to carry out almost a heroism within a week if it wants to be in the quarterfinals of the Europa League. The ‘txuri-urdin’ team lost this Thursday 2-0 against Roma in a match always controlled by the Italian team, who scored at the beginning and end of the match, showing greater maturity and minimizing their mistakes as much as possible.
The first minutes were an intense fight to rule the game. The pressure from both teams made offensive deployment very difficult and reaching the rival area with a certain advantage was almost impossible. Until in minute 12 a ball behind Rico’s back was picked up by Dybala to start a counterattack in which he enabled Abraham, who with a feint took off Zubeldia and put a ball to the far post, where El Sharaawy appeared to get ahead of Gorosabel and put the 1-0. Mourinho was proud.
La Real took a few minutes to recover and began to command, although their domain was fictitious, because Roma left them the ball in areas where it was difficult for the ‘txuri-urdin’ to generate danger. Even so, Kubo found a crack parallel to the baseline to sneak in and shoot at the post in what was the best realistic chance.
Roma
Rui Patricio, Mancini, Smalling, Diego Llorente (Kumbulla, 46th minute), Karsdorp, Cristante, Matic, El Shaarawy (Spinazzola, 59th minute), Pellegrini (Wijnaldum, 59th minute), Dybala (Bove. 88th minute). and Abraham (Belotti, min. 59).
2
–
0
Real society
Remiro, Gorosabel (Sola, min. 83), Le Normand, Zubeldia, Rico, David Silva (Turrientes, min. 83), Zubimendi, Merino, Illarramendi (Brais Méndez, min. 75), Kubo (Cho, min. 75) and Sorloth (Oyarzabal, min. 67).
Goals:
1-0, min. 12: El Shaarawy. 2-0, min. 87, Kumbula.Referee:
Sandro Scharer (Switzerland). Amarillas a Illarramendi, Gorosabel, Zubimendi, Oyarzabal, Zubeldia and Matic.Incidences:
First leg of the round of 16 of the Europa League, played at the Olímpico in Rome. Full.
At the restart, Real continued to have problems creating danger. What’s more, Belotti crashed as soon as a ball went out in the crosshead, remembering that he was playing what Roma wanted. Cho’s departure reactivated the royalists, who equalized in the 82nd minute through Merino, who in an open position finished poorly an excellent service from Brais.
And when the 1-0 seemed like a lesser evil, the second came when Kumbulla headed free from a corner taken by Dybala. Going back from 2-0 to a Mourinho team is going to demand the best of Real.