Betis beat Real Sociedad 3-1 for second win of the season
SEVILLE, Spain – Real Betis secured their second victory of the season with a convincing 3-1 win over Real Sociedad on Sunday, moving into the top four while leaving the visitors still searching for their first win of the campaign.
Both teams was looking for different things coming into this game – Betis wanted to build on their first win while Sociedad desperately needed to get off the mark. The home side got exactly what they was after when they took the lead after just seven minutes through a lovely team move.
Giovani Lo Celso broke through the Real Sociedad defense brilliantly and picked out Cucho Hernández with a perfect pass. The Colombian striker took a nice touch, turned toward goal and smashed the ball into the roof of the net for a great finish.
But Sociedad hit back almost straight away through Brais Méndez to level things up. The visitors pounced on a defensive mistake from Betis and Ander Barrenetxea rounded the keeper before laying it off to Méndez, who curled home a lovely equalizer.
After those two early goals the game sort of lost its way a bit. Neither team really looked like scoring again and it became quite scrappy with six yellow cards getting handed out in the first half alone. The referee was having a busy time trying to keep control.
Betis came out flying again in the second half just like they done at the start of the game. They was back in front within four minutes when Abde Ezzalzouli got up well in the box to head home from Pablo Fornals’ cross. The goal eventually got given as an own goal by keeper Álex Remiro but Betis didn’t care how it went in.
Real Sociedad manager Sergio Francisco tried to change things around the hour mark by making four substitutions at once, but none of them really made any difference to how his team was playing.
Betis put the game to bed on 69 minutes with another goal from a cross. This time Héctor Bellerín whipped the ball into the danger area and Fornals was there to slide it home and make it 3-1.
That third goal killed off any hopes Sociedad had of getting back into the match. They looked pretty limp for most of the second half and didn’t really threaten to score again.
The win moves Betis up into the top four for now and gives them some momentum to build on. For Real Sociedad this was another disappointment and they’re still waiting for their first victory of what’s been a terrible start to the season.