Agirretxe keeps Sociedad on the verge of European qualification
Monday, April 15, 2013 @ 3:02 AM
By Gareth Messenger, Editor-in-Chief, www.laliganews.tv
Imanol Agirretxe scored twice as Real Sociedad moved a step closer to qualifying for the Champions League with a 2-0 win over Rayo Vallecano.
The 26-year-old opened the scoring after just six minutes, latching onto Antoine Griezmann’s low pass and racing ahead of his marker to fire with a neat finish and score his 8th goal of the season.
Eight minutes later and the Spaniard had doubled the away side’s advantage. Xabi Prieto was given acres of room to drill a cross toward Agirretxe, who simply finished from six yards out.
In what was a very slow start by the home side, Rayo coach Paco Jemez made a bold double substitution after just 17 minutes, replacing Lass and Tito with Jose Carlos and Arbilla. However, it proved ineffective as Sociedad continued to dominate the early periods of the match until just before the interval when Leo Baptistao had the easy task of poking home from yards out only to be denied by the defensive heroics of Alberto de la Bella who converted Leo’s effort over the bar for a corner.
Rayo started making a bit of a charge after this and early in the second half Alejandro Dominguez’s free-kick flew agonisingly over the crossbar.
Agirretxe then had a glorious chance to complete his hat-trick but his shot sailed over from just eight yards out.
The win keeps Sociedad in 4th, four points above Malaga and Valencia while Rayo sit in 9th, level on points with their Madrid compatriots Getafe.