Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe shared a pair of penalties with which Real Madrid sealed a 2-0 victory in their visit to Real Sociedad on Saturday, so as not to lose any more points in the Spanish league.
“Vini” opened the scoring by converting his second penalty of the season in the 58th minute, after a handball by Sergio Gomez was called following a powerful shot by Arda Guler.
Mbappe then sent his second penalty of the tournament into the net, converting a foul in the 75th minute that referee Juan Martinez Munuera called after resorting to VAR to assess Jon Aramburu’s stomp on Vinicius.
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The victory leaves the defending champion in second place with 11 points, one behind leaders Barcelona, who will visit Girona on Sunday. Real Sociedad remained stuck in 16th place with four points.
The San Sebastian side had deserved to score several goals before falling behind. Their goals were denied by the goal line when Luka Sucic and Sheraldo Becker hit the crossbar in the first half. Sucic had a second shot on goal that hit the base of the post early in the second half.
Upon returning to action after a two-week international break, Madrid once again looked erratic in attack, despite having Mbappe and Vinicius in the starting line-up, and they looked very vulnerable in the defense.
Mbappe created the best chances for Real Madrid, but they were unable to celebrate thanks to the interventions of goalkeeper Alex Remiro, who also saved a header from Antonio Rudiger in the first half on a corner kick.
The Merengues had a chance to win when Guler dared to take a shot at goal that Gomez deflected with his arm when he tried to cover his face so that Martinez Munuera could point to the penalty that “Vini” had no problem scoring.
Mbappe scored for the second game in a row to reach three goals in the season (four this season) after Martinez Munuera resorted to the video to point out a stomp on “Vini.”
The victory left bad news for the Merengues after Brahim Diaz was substituted after 25 minutes due to a muscle problem. The Spanish-Moroccan forward is the latest to be injured for the Whites along with Jude Bellingham, Aurelien Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga, Dani Ceballos, and David Alaba.
Coach Carlo Ancelotti will now have to find answers to help him improve his form ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League opener against Stuttgart.
Despite the result, coach Carlo Ancelotti was dissatisfied with the performance of his team today against Real Sociedad and said in a press conference after the match: “Today was a difficult game, we possibly did not deserve to win because Real Sociedad played very well. It was hard for us to come back from behind.”
“I think we held on. We suffered in the match, and we also had some difficult moments. I really value the sacrifice and commitment of a team with so much quality, we can’t always find it (victory) but today we found it,” said coach Ancelotti after the Merengue victory.
With this, the white team is positioned as second in the LaLiga table with eleven points, one less than its rival FC Barcelona although the Catalan club has yet to play this Matchday 5 in Spanish football.
