Goals from Luiz Adriano, Alex Teixeira and Douglas Costa saw Real Sociedad crash out of the Champions League as they lost 4-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk.
Fresh from his goalscoring exploits at the weekend, Carlos Vela was named as the main man in attack for La Real, whilst t right back Liassine Cadamuro made his European debut, replacing the injured Carlos Martinez.
The Basque outfit went into the game knowing that only a win would keep their European dreams alive, but with so much at stake the opening exchanges were cagey with both teams congesting the pitch in midfield.
It was Real’s Mexican forward though, who had the first chance of the game, drifting past Vyacheslav Shevchuk before forcing Andriy Pyatov into a save.
Jagoba Arrasate’s men were really growing into the game, but their monopoly of possession couldn’t result in breaking the deadlock at the Donbass Arena.
And the visitors almost paid for that lack of cutting edge late on when Dario Srna rattled the post from a shot just on the edge of the area. On 37 minutes though, they did, as Luiz Adriano tapped in at the near post from a Diego Costa corner.
After the break, all of the Erreala’s good work in the first half was undone immediately as Alex Teixeira took advantage of some hesitant defending from Inigo Martinez and finished past the goalkeeper.
Class and experience was showing, and the Ukrainians quickly made it 3-0 thanks to another Brazilian, Douglas Costa – the striker collected a pass from Teixeira and smashed a first time effort into the top corner.
Imanol Agirretxe and Haris Seferovic went close for the away team, but it wasn’t enough as Real Sociedad bowed out of the Champions League with a 4-0 loss as Douglas Costa added another late on with a back-post header.
Shakhtar Donetsk 4-0 Real Sociedad
Scorers: Luiz Adriano 37 (SD), Teixeira 48 (SD), Douglas Costa 69, 87 (SD)
Shakhtar: Pyatov; Srna, Kucher, Rakitsky, Shevchuk; Stepanenko, Teixeira (Eduardo 75), Fred; Douglas Costa, Luiz Adriano, Bernard (Taison 70)
Real Sociedad: Bravo, Cadamuro, Ansotegi, Iñigo, De la Bella, Elustondo, Pardo (Ros 70), X.Prieto (c), Chory Castro, Vela (Seferovic 74), Griezmann (Agirretxe 74)
