Real Sociedad suffered a chastening 4-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United in the Europa League on Thursday evening to cap a bad week of European football for Spanish clubs. Their defeat followed on from Barcelona and Sevilla’s consecutive defeats, with Granada and Villarreal playing later this evening.
A brace from Bruno Fernandes fired United into a 2-0 lead by the 57th minute, before Marcus Rashford and then Daniel James added a third and a fourth to consolidate the victory. La Real just couldn’t live with the pace and ingenuity of United’s frontline.
The defeat, and the manner of it, is tough to take for the Basque side. They had started the season so well, racing into an early lead and even entertaining talk of challenging for the title. Their form has since tapered off, however, and Imanol Alguacil‘s men now sit fifth, seven points behind fourth-placed Sevilla with a game more played.
“There’s no doubt it’s a difficult and painful result,” Alguacil said post-game in comments carried by Marca. “But we wanted to be faithful to our style, no matter who we had in front of us. We knew we could suffer in behind because of their fast forwards, and that they’re a Champions League team, second in the Premier League. If we had to lose, it had to be like this.”
