Real Madrid 3 – Real Sociedad 1: Quick takeaways from the LaLiga win

Real Madrid were able to shake off back-to-back draws as they defeated previously undefeated side Real Sociedad 3-1 Sunday night in the Anoeta Stadium. Here’s a quick recap of the match.

In a must-win match, Real Madrid came out in the first half with lots of possession and good team play, as Luka Modric and Isco linked up well with Isco in moving the ball.

Despite being without Marcelo for the match due to a red card picked up in the draw with Levante last weekend, Theo Hernandez was impressive moving forward with pace and throwing a lot of crosses into the box.

Although he wasn’t successful on many of these balls, his ability moving forward was quite impressive while his play on the defensive side was valiant.

Real Madrid broke through with a goal in the 19th minute courtesy of youngster Borja Mayoral who found a loose ball after a good run from Sergio Ramos toed the ball into the bottom corner to get his first goal in LaLiga in his career.

Not only was it Mayoral’s first competitive goal for Real Madrid, it was also his first official shot on target in nine appearances on the Real first team.

Sociedad tied the match at one just nine minutes later when left-back Kévin Rodrigues took a volley shot that seemed to be stopped by Keylor Navas trickled through his legs and into the side netting.

The goal went down as an error on Navas’ end as he should’ve made the stop.

Real came roaring back as it was again Mayoral who set up the second goal, holding the ball up at the edge of the box and taking a shot that luckily deflected off of the Sociedad goal scorer Rodrigues, putting Madrid up for good.

The first half concluded with the score at 2-1 to Los Blancos after a chippy affair. Four yellow cards were distributed, three to La Real and one to Real Madrid, after the goal from Mayoral.

The second half was just a showing of how good Zidane’s side is at closing out matches, as the defense (especially Raphael Varane) played fantastic in stopping relentless Real Sociedad attacks.

Real put the match on ice in the 61st minute when Gareth Bale ran onto the end of a great over the top ball from Isco to Gareth Bale and Bale flashed his vintage speed, outrunning the defense and scoring his sixth goal in five matches at the Anoeta Stadium.

Real Madrid continued to scrap to the final whistle, with Theo, Dani Carvajal, and Casemiro all going down with injuries at separate times in the final half hour. None of these were serious problems, but it shows how scrappy this affair was.

With the win, Real Madrid move into fourth in LaLiga, a point behind Real Sociedad through the first four matches.

Los Blancos also tied the long-held record by Santos for most consecutive matches with a goal, now 73 and counting.

Next: Isco finally signs his new Real Madrid contract extension til 2022

Stay tuned to The Real Champs for more post-match coverage and analysis!