Actual Sociedad are usually not but assured of their place within the Europa League knockout levels, as they have been to a harmful 3-1 defeat towards Lazio on the Stadio Olimpico.
Imanol Alguacil named his strongest line-up for the match in Rome, but it surely was a dreadful begin for La Actual as they fell behind contained in the opening 5 minutes. Taty Castellano laid the ball off to former Actual Madrid defender Mario Gila after a set piece, and the Spaniard fired again Alex Remiro and into the again of the web.
It will get even worse for La Actual later within the first half as Javi Lopez was proven a second yellow card for a careless foul. To make issues worse, Lazio would go to on rating twice in fast succession only some moments later. First, Mattia Zaccagni netted after being arrange by Gustav Isaksen, earlier than Castellanos, who was on mortgage at Girona throughout the 2022-23 season, discovered the again of the web so as to add to his earliest help.
At that time, it was injury limitation for Imanol and La Actual. Brais Mendez, Mikel Oyarzabal, Martin Zubimendi and Takefusa Kubo have been all taken off earlier than the second half kicked on, with a view to them being recent for the match towards Getafe on Sunday. Nonetheless, they did lose key defender Nayef Aguerd as he appeared to choose up a knock, for which he required to be susbtituted.
Impressively, that stopped the rot as Lazio have been unable to seek out one other aim, and La Actual even managed to seek out the again of the web themselves as substitute Ander Barrenetxea netted from shut vary after Jon Aramburu had been denied from a good angle.
The consequence implies that Actual Sociedad, who’ve now misplaced two matches in a row after final weekend’s defeat at Valencia, should win at dwelling to PAOK subsequent Thursday if they’re to guarantee themselves of a spot within the Europa League play-off spherical.