It was a frustrating evening for Real Sociedad at the Reale Arena on Tuesday, as they bowed out of this season’s Champions League after falling to a 4-1 aggregate defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in their last 16 tie.
Mikel Merino gave the home crowd a nice moment, as he fired home a consolation goal late on. As it turned out, it was an eventful closing to proceedings for the 27-year-old midfielder, as he was in conversation with referee Michael Oliver on multiple occasions.
Relevo report that Merino revealed Oliver asked him whether he wanted more stoppage time added on at the end of the match.
“We deserved a goal. We’ve done some very good things, hovering around the opponent’s goal. The referee himself asked me: ‘Do you want us to add more or not?’ and I said that we always want to play more here.”
Oliver and Merino were also seen chatting once the full time whistle was blown. The referee, who is widely known in England as being a Newcastle United fan, is reported to have asked Merino whether he’d be willing to re-join the Premier League side, whom he played for between 2017 and 2018.
👀 If you look very closely around the 36 second mark, you can clearly see referee Michael Oliver lobbying #RealSociedad captain Mikel Merino to re-join #NUFC.pic.twitter.com/oLeZhSm4lr
— Football España (@footballespana_) March 5, 2024
For Merino and Real Sociedad, their only focus is now on La Liga. It’s imperative that they pick up form in the coming weeks if they are to return to Europe again next season.
