Adnan Januzaj sends a direct message to the Reale Arena box. To the stands too, but he has already had the fans in his pocket for a long time. And now he plays with those who rule and must sign their renewal with Real Sociedad. The Belgian winger put on an honorable performance to show that, if he is always at that level, any effort to renew him will fall short. He led the attack of the txuri-urdin entering from all fronts, with a collection of dribbles, crosses and passes filtered into the hole that delighted the spectators and that unfortunately were not taken advantage of by his teammates.
Oyarzabal scored from a penalty by Duarte’s hand that did justice to the realist domain, although before Granada had failed two clear occasions because Remiro was superb. And then after the break Rafinha finished off the result with the curiously highest score of the season at home. Granada barely had the capacity to react to the royalist dominance, and left San Sebastián reaping their fourth consecutive defeat. Januzaj cleared up Real’s concerns and increased those of Granada, who see how the lower half lurks more and more.
LaLiga Santander
*Data updated as of February 13, 2022
The game started electric, with an intense and very involved Real Sociedad, searching without hesitation for Maximiano’s goal, and arriving with danger from the first minute of play. It seemed that it was going to be a monologue with the ball by the txuri-urdin, but they did not expect Granada to explore the spaces behind their central defenders and that they had some doubts that we were not used to this season.
First it was Arezo after standing alone in front of Remiro inside the area after outspeeding Le Normand and Aritz Elustondo; but Remiro, again Remiro, was spectacular guessing his intention and taking a saving foot. And later, Aritz is not fine to clear a ball from above and allowed Collado to also step on the realistic area; but once again Remiro brought out his skills as a handball goalkeeper to once again save Real with his foot.
LaLiga Santander
*Data updated as of February 13, 2022
Granada did not take advantage of their moment, and Real once again picked up renewed energy to once again control the ball and bottle up the Nasrid team in their field. The royalists pressed very high, stole the ball high up and generated imbalances in Granada’s defensive network. And always led by an immeasurable Januzaj. The Belgian drove the visiting defense crazy on the right, in the center and on the left. But Isak and Oyarzabal were not able to take advantage of their gifts, but also because Maximiano was also at a superb level.
But what the Portuguese goalkeeper could not stop was Oyarzabal’s penalty goal. He played with some controversy, Duarte’s hand after Gorosabel caught a rebound at the corner exit, the ball tried to finish it off Merino and the ball hit the hand of Granada’s central defender, who had it too high. The goal spurred a Real team, which until the break made merits to increase the score, but the aim was once again crooked by the people of San Sebastian. The 1-0 was the logical result at the break, seeing the merits of each other.
After the break, a mighty exit from Granada was expected, in search of the tie that had eluded them in the first half. It seemed that he took a step forward, but he lost the ball too easily. And that caused the Real to steal with relative ease and come out quickly with direct transitions with which they once again generated the best approaches, with lateral centers that could not find a finisher inside the small area. La Real once again took command of operations, and Granada once again chased shadows. He tried to stay on his feet, taking advantage of the shortness of the result that always generates uncertainty. But he barely had a chance to run and look for Remiro’s goal. It is hardly necessary to count a shot from the edge of the box by Luis Suárez that was easily stopped by Remiro as the only dangerous option in that second half.
La Real did not close the game and that caused some fear in the stands, but he did not seem to be uncomfortable. And with Januzaj as the most inspired player, the second goal was chewed with more and more impetus. It had to be when the Belgian was no longer on the pitch, although before leaving he was able to do it himself. He only needed to score to round off his brilliant performance.
Rafinha came out to put the finishing touch to the week of his first birthday in Donostia. The Brazilian finished off a good action by Oyarzabal down the left wing from the second line. That was the end of the game, because Granada had one last outburst of pride, but Real did not even leave them the honor. The one who deserved it won. There times that football does justice.
#Januzaj #puts #doubts