La Real took a giant step on its way to Europe and is located three points from the Champions thanks to a victory as deserved as suffered against him I raised. Deserved because during a large part of the match, the process was a crushing of the txuri urdin who were only able to score one goal, which led them to have to fight for the result until the end against a very physically affected Levante who had hardly any options .
It was inexplicable that the Real did not win clearly, even by a landslide, half an hour into the game. When Merino marked the
1-0 in the 9th minute, the Navarrese himself had already finished off a ball to the post two minutes before and Isak had already had a header inside the area in the three. In the minutes immediately after the opening goal, Real enjoyed a penalty that failed again Oyarzabal in 20 ', from a heads up of Isak in the 27 'that the Swede solved in a horrible way, from a finish to the baseline of Oyarzabal in the 32 'whose center was resolved badly, from another shot from the Eibar from the front in the 33' that Cardenas repelled with a stop and with another shot of Isak at the far post at the exit of a corner that went to the side of the net.
Beyond the 13 shots, four between the three sticks, of the Real in that first act, the txuri urdin forgave the option of liquidating the game since Levante appeared disconnected at it. As if mind and body still dragged the effects of the elimination of the cup, the Valencian team was a disaster, accumulating errors at the beginning that provided the Real with constant attacks in the final third of their field that, however, the txuri urdin they ran wrong by system.
The issue reached paranormal limits for the Real in the second part. In the first eight of the restart, they canceled the second to Merino for positional offside of Isak, Duarte he took a shot from under sticks Januzaj, hand in hand with the goalkeeper, and the Costa Rican central defender himself avoided, also in the line, that Isak will push an accurate center of Silva. La Real accumulated 15 shots on goal, no less than seven resounding scoring chances and Levante was still alive, despite continuing out of the game.
A header from Zubimendi to the crossbar, after the goalkeeper's mitt, and a stoppage of Cardenas to Isak in a heads-up game, after another mistake taking the ball from Levante, they were the next actions to join the sequence of Real's attack that was making Levante go through an ordeal. 21 shots from the txuri urdin were counted in the 65th minute.
The great merit of the Real was not to decline despite seeing how the Levante wall did not yield definitively. And continue to press up with the voracity that he did from the start, key to the game to force one after another the errors of the Valencians in their first third of the field. The Levantines, in any case, came up with options as incredible as it seemed in the final twenty minutes and Are had the first big chance to tie in 68 '. He fell a cross past the far post and his volley went over the crossbar of Remiro.
La Real was not able to take advantage of that dynamic of curse that accompanied him throughout the game, not even when For your returned to stand hand in hand before Cardenas. The Murcian threw him a vaseline, like the one that marked Getafe in Anoeta, and it narrowly missed him. The meeting entered the field of panic for the Real, for the fear of losing what they had after forgiving so much and Bardhi he warned with an Olympic corner that went to the crossbar in the 83rd minute. The visiting team did not have many more options, whose only merit was to put fear in the body until the end of a Real that ended up holding a decisive victory.
(+) See the summary of the match
Real Sociedad, 1: Remiro; Gorosabel, Zubeldia, Le Normand, Aihen; Zubimendi, Silva (Guridi, m. 79), Merino; Januzaj (Portu, m. 72), Oyarzabal (Barrenetxea, m. 72) and Isak (Carlos Fernández, m. 79).
Levante, 0: Cárdenas; They are, Coke (Malsa, m. 56), Vezo, Duarte, Toño (Clerc, m. 81); Vukcevic (De Frutos, d. 56), Rochina (Doukoure, d. 69), Bardhi, Morales and Dani Gómez (Roger, d. 69).
Goals: 1-0: Merino (m. 9)
Referee: Soto Grado. Yellow to Rochina, Dani Gómez
Stadium: Anoeta (without spectators).