Real Sociedad survive Jon Martín's red card to beat Elche 3-2

Real Sociedad needed a stoppage-time goal from Luka Sučić to see off Elche 3-2 at the Martínez Valero, and they needed it while down to ten men. Job Ochieng and Yangel Herrera had them 2-0 up inside the first half hour, only for a red card to Jon Martín to hand Elche a route back into the game — and the hosts took it, twice, before Sučić settled it in the first minute of added time.

The visitors were the sharper side early on. Ochieng opened the scoring in the 11th minute, and Herrera doubled it in the 31st, and for long spells of the first half it looked like a routine away win in the making despite Elche holding the bulk of possession.

A red card and a disallowed goal, from the same review

The turning point arrived just after the hour. Martín, on six minutes earlier as a substitute for Mamadou Sarr, was penalised for handball in the box, and referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias sent him off in the 64th minute. The same VAR review chalked off what had looked like Sučić's second goal and Real Sociedad's third, for an earlier handball in the same passage of play — turning what should have been a comfortable 3-0 into a one-goal game against ten men.

Elche made the numerical advantage count. Thomas Lemar, on from the bench, pulled one back in the 67th minute from a Víctor Chust delivery, and substitute Fer Niño levelled it at 2-2 seven minutes later, finishing a Tete Morente cross. The Martínez Valero smelled a result. Real Sociedad held on, and it was Sučić — the man denied his goal half an hour earlier — who won it, converting an Ochieng pass in the first minute of stoppage time for the winner.

Goal timeline

Match stats

Line-ups

Elche manager Martin Anselmi set up in a 3-5-2 with Matías Dituro in goal, Pedro Bigas, Buba Sangaré and Víctor Chust across the back three, Álvaro Morcillo, Facundo Buonanotte, Germán Valera, Gonzalo Villar and Tete Morente in midfield, and Fer Niño and Enzo Ponce leading the line; Lemar came on from a bench that also included Josan, Rubén Sobrino, Redondo and Ali Houary. Real Sociedad played a 4-4-2 with Unai Marrero in goal, Jon Aramburu, Mamadou Sarr, Carlos Soler and Sergio Gómez at the back, Job Ochieng, Yangel Herrera, Luka Sučić and Gonçalo Guedes across midfield, and Mikel Oyarzabal up front; Sarr came off for Jon Martín in the 58th minute, six minutes before Martín's dismissal.

Two sides going through the same wobble

Neither club arrived at the Martínez Valero in great shape. Elche had won none of their previous three league matches — a 1-1 draw at Deportivo, a 0-5 hammering by Barcelona at home, and a 2-3 loss away at Racing Santander — and this defeat stretched that run further: they would not win a league match again until the 18th of September, a month after their previous victory. Real Sociedad had opened the season with back-to-back defeats, to Real Betis and Real Madrid, before a 2-1 win at Espanyol and a 0-0 draw with Celta Vigo steadied things. This away win looked like the platform for a proper turnaround — except it was not one.

What came next

Elche's bounce came three matches later, a 3-1 win at Espanyol, after a draw at Athletic Club and a late Real Madrid comeback that undid them at home in almost identical fashion to this one. Real Sociedad's reward for the win at Elche was short-lived: they were beaten 0-3 at home by Atlético Madrid in their very next match, before recovering with a 3-2 win away at Valencia. The ten men who held out at the Martínez Valero were not, in the end, the start of a settled run for either side — just one afternoon where Real Sociedad's extra goals in the first half proved just enough to survive their extra man disadvantage in the second.