Real Sociedad hold off Levante 2-1 in a high-chance Anoeta thriller

Barely five minutes had gone by when Orri Oskarsson had already put Levante in trouble at Estadio Municipal de Anoeta. A right-footed strike from the middle of the box made it 1-0 for Real Sociedad before the match had even warmed up. The final score read 2-1 in favor of the home side, but in between there was a seven-minute stretch that changed everything.

Levante did not sit back. In the 22nd minute, Nacho Perez leveled the score with a close-range finish, also with his right foot, after an assist from Thiago Fernandez. The equalizer did not last long: four minutes later, Beñat Turrientes finished with his left foot from the center of the box, set up by Goncalo Guedes, to restore Real Sociedad's lead and make it the 2-1 that would hold until the final whistle.

Dominance that did not translate into more goals

What stood out most about this match is that, despite ending 2-1, Real Sociedad was clearly the better side in terms of controlling the game. They had 62.1 percent possession, fired off 17 shots to Levante's 6, and created 4 big chances compared to the visitors' 2. Orri Oskarsson, who scored the opening goal, kept testing Levante's defense throughout the match (he had chances in the 24th, 28th, 29th and 32nd minutes without finding the net again), and Goncalo Guedes also had several attempts that failed to hit the target.

That superiority also shows up in the xG calculated after the fact based on where the shots were taken from: Real Sociedad generated 2.827 expected goals to Levante's 0.926. This is our own estimate built after the final whistle, not a prediction, but it confirms that the result could have been more lopsided for the home side had it not been for their limited efficiency in front of goal, with only 3 of 17 shots finding the target.

Ahead of the match, we had projected a 57 percent chance of a Real Sociedad win, a 22 percent chance of a draw, and a 21 percent chance of a Levante victory, with expected goals of 2.24 for the home side and 1.32 for the visitors, for a total of 3.56. The final 2-1 scoreline landed fairly close to that forecast, though Levante scored their goal earlier than those numbers suggested, forcing Real Sociedad to settle the match in a very tight window, between the 22nd and 26th minutes.

In the second half, the pace of the match shifted but the result did not. Levante brought on Victor Garcia, Axel Tape and Karl Etta Eyong, who had a clear chance in the 63rd minute that went well over the bar. Real Sociedad, for their part, turned to the bench with Ander Barrenetxea, Jon Aramburu, Yangel Herrera and, late on, Job Ochieng and Arsen Zakharyan, looking to put the game away without success. Yellow cards went to Jon Martin, Manu Sanchez, Yanis Musuayi and Victor Garcia, but no further goals were added to the scoreline despite chances continuing to arrive, including a shot from Mikel Oyarzabal in the 78th minute that went just wide.

What the result means

With this win, Real Sociedad reaches 19 points so far in LaLiga, sitting in fifth place with a record of 6 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses in 10 matches played. Levante, meanwhile, remain on 10 points, in 14th place, with 2 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses in the same number of matches. The gap between the two sides in the standings is 9 points, a fairly accurate reflection of what played out on the field: a match with a close scoreline, but one in which Real Sociedad was in control for almost the entire time while Levante held on through resilience and the occasional offensive spark that was not enough to take anything away from Anoeta.