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First Division - Day 29

Almería 4 - Real Sociedad 3

Almería: Esteban; Rafita, Trujillo, Torsiglieri, Mané; Verza, Corona (Hicham 87’); Aleix Vidal, Soriano (Tébar 75’), Suso; Oscar Díaz (Hélder Barbosa 80’). 4-2-3-1.
Real: Claudio Bravo; Carlos Martínez, Mikel González (Chory Castro 81’), Iñigo Martínez, De la Bella; Bergara, Zurutuza (Xabi Prieto 73’); Carlos Vela, Canales (Rubén Pardo 72’), Griezmann; Agirretxe. 4-2-3-1.

Goals:
0-1. 21. Carlos Vela (penalty). After Trujillo blocked ball with arm inside the area.
1-1. 29. Oscar Díaz. Ran on to Soriano return pass and lifted shot over Bravo.
1-2. 58. Agirretxe. Picked up Bravo clearance and ran on to lob ball over keeper.
2-2. 66. Verza (penalty). After Carlos Martínez brought down Vidal on edge of area.
3-2. 71. Verza (penalty). After Vidal fell in area under challenge by Carlos Martínez.
3-3. 85. Bergara. Got above defence to head Chory Castro free kick past Esteban.
4-3. 91. Hicham. Deflected ball into net after charging down De la Bella clearance.

Yellow cards: Trujillo 20’, Oscar Díaz 62’, Carlos Martínez 65’, Mikel González 70’, Soriano 72’, Verza 73’, De la Bella 87.

A second seven-goal thriller in 24 hours as Almería beat Real Sociedad 4-3 in the Monday night game to move out of the bottom three. Although this one didn’t have 400 million people watching, it was just as exciting as yesterday’s “clásico”, with the lead changing hands three times, and some controversial refereeing decisions in to the bargain. Carlos Vela opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the twentieth minute after Ayza Gámez ruled that Trujillo had handled the ball deliberately, but some eight minutes later Oscar Díaz equalized after getting ahead of Bravo to lob Soriano’s return pass over the keeper. Esteban had to save a couple of times from Canales and Griezmann after the interval, but Verza got the ball in the net after Soriano headed on a corner only for the referee to incorrectly rule out the strike for offside. Play immediately went up the other end though, and Agirretxe picked up Bravo’s long kick and ran on to lift a shot over Esteban to restore the lead. Soon afterwards however Ayza awarded a penalty to the locals for a foul by Carlos Martínez on Aleix Vidal a yard outside of the penalty area, and Verza stepped up to score. Agirretxe almost netted again when his slow shot was hooked off the line by Mané, but minutes later Almería were given a second penalty with the same two protagonists, this time Vidal falling all too easily under a challenge by Carlos. Again Verza slotted home the spot kick, and again Real made it all square when Bergara headed a wide Chory Castro free kick down past the keeper. Local coach Francisco was sent to the stands for protesting, but not before he had brought on Hicham, and although De la Bella got to Tébar’s pass before him, the young substitute stuck out a foot and deflected the ball in to the net. That took the Andalusians over Getafe and out of the bottom three, and left their opponents still down in sixth place, a point behind Sevilla in the table. No rest for the wicked though, and tomorrow sees the start of a round of midweek league games.