Silva and Sørloth strikes help Sociedad end Almeria's unbeaten home record

This first meeting between the teams in LL since February 2015 promised to be an intriguing one, with the top four-chasing visitors aiming to continue their good form against an Almería side who have the second best home form in the league this season. Interestingly, Real Sociedad’s away record was identical to Almería’s home record, so it perhaps shouldn’t have come as a surprise that there was little to separate the teams in the first half.

Searching for their first H2H victory in four matches, Los Txuri-Urdin came close to taking the lead inside the opening 15 minutes when Takefusa Kubo fizzed a shot from inside the area just wide of the right post. The Japanese international was involved again just after the half-hour mark when he was denied by a good diving save from Fernando. This was one of few bright moments in a first half which lacked attacking quality, with the hosts failing to register a single shot and the visitors also missing a spark. Despite their impressive performances in LL so far this term, neither team are known for their goal scoring threat.

See all the match stats at Flashscore

The mercurial David Silva had been one of Real Sociedad’s better players, and two minutes after the restart he gave his team the lead when he benefited from a kind deflection to fire past Fernando from close range for his first goal of the season, which was awarded after a VAR check. Things got even better for the visitors five minutes later when Alexander Sørloth cut inside onto his left foot and powered a shot past Fernando at his near post to make it 2-0.

Almería average just over a goal a game this season, so it was always going to be unlikely that they would score three to turn the game around, and this proved the case as they fell to defeat. The Rojiblancos drop to 14th, while Real Sociedad stay 3rd.

Flashscore Man of the Match: David Silva (Real Sociedad)