Direct Narration and statistics
Although statistics are sometimes very misleading in football, at other times it is very graphic.
La Real fired 16 times, but only three shots went in the direction of goal.
And Elche barely knew how to put together a shot that didn't even require Remiro's intervention.
With numbers like this, it is easy to imagine how the game was.
It cost more than it should be for Imanol Alguacil, but he ended up taking a victory that secures him in a fifth place that neither Betis nor Villarreal will be able to snatch from him this day.
Elche, on the other hand, left Anoeta with his head down, still stuck in the relegation places, but also with a point of frustration. The
Escribá team
had to play
80 minutes with one less footballer and that, against a superior rival, is a sentence from which it is difficult to escape. And that produced a major anger in an Elche that considered the decision made by the referee excessive, after going to the monitor to review an action that he considered yellow from the start.
The group from Elche had not started the game precisely well, too devoted to the control of Real Sociedad, despite the fact that only victory was worth it. That philosophy changed when at 10 minutes he was left with one less player.
Raúl Guti
gave a pass and, in the inertia of hitting the ball, hit the lower part of Gorosabel's tibia with his studs. A fortuitous but very dangerous action for the integrity of the side 'txuriurdin' that the referee dispatched in the first instance with a yellow. At the request of the VAR, he saw her again and that was when he decided to expel the handy midfielder.
The final decision was controversial, as in recent weeks there have been examples of all kinds for similar actions.
Aritz Elustondo,
for example, was not sent off after a squad similar to
Santi Mina
, while
Fekir
did see the red for his entry to
Vencedor
. Elche had a cross in Anoeta and from then on he resigned himself to living in a retreat, with the lines very close together and focusing his efforts so that the Real did not find clarity in the frontal area.
The VAR at least gave him a break on the edge of half an hour.
Monreal
had scored in a very messy play, but the repetition showed Silva's offside at the origin of the play.
It was one of the few times that Real really put Elche in trouble, because despite its dominance it tended to run out of lights when it approached the
Gazzaniga
area
.
He ended up resorting to spoon passes over the center-backs that never achieved their goal.
The sentence of Oyarzabal
The Real continued rowing, but could not find a way to break the iron defensive system of Elche. You can see that the Gipuzkoan team arrives lacking in spark at this final stretch of the season, something logical after the accumulated wear and tear it has suffered. In the end, he found the key to the set piece lock. In a rehearsed corner, Elustondo outwitted his marker and took advantage of
Januzaj's
measured delivery
to connect a powerful header that hit the bottom of the crossbar.
There were 20 minutes left and Elche had no choice but to take more risks to try to take at least one point from San Sebastián.
The problem was, apart from playing with one less, the accumulated fatigue of 70 long minutes running after the ball.
Much to his regret, Remiro was not even seen on television.
The one who did appear again was Gazzaniga, powerless against the counter culminated by
Oyarzabal
in the discount that fastened the 'txuriurdin' triumph and kept Elche where it already was and wants to stop being.
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