Real Sociedad beat Lillestrøm SK 6-0 as Gómez and Sucic score twice
Real Sociedad won 6-0 at Åråsen Stadion, with three goals in eight first-half minutes and four different scorers on the night.
By Harvey Watkins,
Real Sociedad won 6-0 away to Lillestrøm SK on Europa League Matchday 3, and the margin tells most of the story. Four different players scored, two of them twice, and the home side did not find the net at all at Åråsen Stadion.
Eight minutes that decided it
The first 24 minutes passed without a goal. Then the game turned quickly. Sergio Gómez scored in the 25th minute and again in the 27th, two goals in a little over two minutes, and Luka Sucic added a third in the 33rd. In the space of eight minutes Real Sociedad went from level to three goals clear, and that was how it stood at half-time.
That burst is the part of the evening that matters most. Before it, the match was goalless and Lillestrøm SK were still in it. After it, they needed three goals simply to draw level, against a side that had just shown how quickly it could score. The rest of the night offered no sign of that gap closing.
No let-up after the break
Real Sociedad kept going. Orri Óskarsson made it four in the 64th minute, Sucic scored his second in the 72nd, and Arsen Zakharyan completed the scoring in the 80th. Three second-half goals in sixteen minutes turned a comfortable win into a heavy one.
The spread of the scoring is worth noting. Gómez and Sucic finished with two each, Óskarsson and Zakharyan with one apiece, so the result did not rest on a single player having an exceptional night. Sucic scored either side of half-time, at 33 and 72 minutes, and Gómez did all his damage in that short spell before the half-hour.
What the result does and does not say
A six-goal away win in European competition is a striking result, and there is no sensible reading of it other than that Real Sociedad were by far the stronger side on the night. A clean sheet alongside six goals scored leaves little to argue about.
It is still one match, though. A scoreline this lopsided can exaggerate the gap between two sides as easily as it reflects it, and one evening is a thin basis for broader conclusions about either team. What it does show is that once Real Sociedad found a way through, they kept finding it.
For Lillestrøm SK, conceding six at home without reply is a hard evening to take. The damage came in two clusters, three goals in eight minutes before half-time and three in sixteen after the hour, rather than at a steady rate across the 90 minutes. That pattern is the clearest lesson from the night.
The goals
- 25' Sergio Gómez (Real Sociedad) 0-1
- 27' Sergio Gómez (Real Sociedad) 0-2
- 33' Luka Sucic (Real Sociedad) 0-3
- 64' Orri Óskarsson (Real Sociedad) 0-4
- 72' Luka Sucic (Real Sociedad) 0-5
- 80' Arsen Zakharyan (Real Sociedad) 0-6