Malaga 2-5 Real Sociedad: Oyarzabal Double Powers La Real Past the Bottom Side

Malaga 2-5 Real Sociedad: Oyarzabal Double Powers La Real Past the Bottom Side

Real Sociedad beat bottom club Malaga 5-2 at La Rosaleda on Sunday, Takefusa Kubo's third-minute opener setting the tone and a Mikel Oyarzabal double killing the game just as the hosts threatened a comeback. The win keeps La Real fifth on 16 points, holding the Europa League place; Malaga stay 20th on four, still without a league win after nine rounds.

The visitors needed only three minutes to breach a defence that has now shipped 18 goals in nine games. Kubo, fed by Håkon Fort, finished coolly, and Orri Oskarsson doubled the lead on 26 minutes to send Real Sociedad in 2-0 at the break. Malaga had offered little to that point — and what followed briefly suggested a contest.

Nino pulled one back within nine minutes of the restart, poking home after Pedro Martínez's work created the opening, and La Rosaleda stirred. The response lasted five minutes. Oyarzabal restored the two-goal cushion on 59, turned provider-in-chief Kubo again involved, and when Martínez made it 2-3 on 66, Oyarzabal struck again a minute later to end the argument. Gonçalo Guedes added a fifth on 73 to complete the scoring.

The numbers matched the scoreline. Real Sociedad generated 2.39 expected goals to Malaga's 1.06, put nine of 21 shots on target and completed 89 percent of their passes; Malaga managed six on target from 17 attempts and never looked like holding a line that has conceded two or more in six of nine matches. Juan Funes's side have now lost five and drawn four — the only winless record in the division.

For Malaga, the meaning is grim and simple: four points from a possible 27, a minus-12 goal difference, and a gap to 17th-place Elche that grows every week. The two second-half goals were their first since late September and briefly hinted at a rally, but the defensive concessions that have defined their season returned within minutes, twice.

For Real Sociedad, this is a third win in four and exactly the fixture-list medicine an inconsistent start needed. La Real began the round fifth only on goal difference congestion; they end it with breathing space in the Europa League spot, three points clear of seventh, with Oyarzabal — two goals and an involvement in three of five — looking every bit the captain whose form will decide whether they can climb higher.

Kubo was the thread through most of it. The Japan international set the tempo with the earliest goal, created Oyarzabal's first with a defence-opening pass, and departed to applause on 71 minutes with his side cruising. Around him, Oskarsson's intelligent movement and Guedes's late contribution off the bench handed Pellegrino Matarazzo a selection puzzle of the pleasant kind: five different scorers in a single away afternoon is the kind of depth the top-half race rewards.

Match report by Núria Salvat, OneLightScore LaLiga correspondent. Cover image from the OneLightScore platform library; reusable licence.