Sociedad gatecrash Granada’s party
Real Sociedad went level on points with La Liga leaders Barcelona after snatching a 2-1 victory away to fellow high-flyers Granada on Sunday thanks to a late strike from forward Cristian Portu.
Promoted Granada had fallen off the summit of the table in mid-week after surprisingly leading the standings last weekend and had the chance to reclaim top spot after Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid had all failed to win on Saturday.
The victory took Real Sociedad third on the standings on 22 points after 12 games, level with second-placed Real and leaders Barcelona, who both have a game in hand.
Sociedad coach Imanol Alguacil said his side deserved the victory but was not interested in discussing whether they could remain among the top three come the end of the season.
“These three points are important to us but so is every victory in this league, where any team can beat anyone else. Today we beat a side who were ahead of us and who are very strong at home and that says a lot of our players,” he said.
“The league table doesn’t mean anything to us, we’re more interested in the way we play and we’re very happy with how we played today.”
Granada coach Diego Martinez was proud of his team’s performance but frustrated at the manner in which they lost.
“It’s a real pity, the game was very evenly matched and I give my players 10 out of 10 for effort but it wasn’t meant to be,” he said.
Osasuna continued their remarkable home form by beating Alaves 4-2 for a club record 31st home victory in a row in league competition.
They were last beaten at their El Sadar home in April 2018 when they were in Spain’s second division and earlier this campaign held champions Barca to a 2-2 draw there.