Sociedad and Malaga stalemate

Real Sociedad are still without a win since the first day of the season after being held to a goalless draw by Malaga.

Real Sociedad are still without a win since the first day of the season after being held to a goalless draw by Malaga. The match was low on incident and the best chances largely came from crosses into the box, with neither side able to capitalise. The Basques struggled to break down Bernd Schuster's side, who enjoyed the better of the chances, but were wasteful in front of goal. The hosts came into the match after a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk in their opening Champions League group game, and coach Jagoba Arrasate made four changes for the visit of Malaga. Carlos Martinez returned to the side for the first time in a month after recovering from injury, Jose Angel Valdes stepped in at left-back, Gonzalo Castro started in attack and Agirretxe made his first appearance in the league this season, starting ahead of Haris Seferovic. The visitors, buoyed by their 5-0 thumping of Rayo Vallecano the previous weekend, took the game to the hosts. Francisco Portillo forced Claudio Bravo to make the save of the game midway through the first half, the Chilean goalkeeper scrambling to tip his powerful shot from the edge of the area over the bar. Real Sociedad, perhaps jaded from their game with Shakhtar, were unable to create many chances. Mikel Gonzalez brought a free-kick from Pardo down in the area seven minutes into the game, but skied the shot. Their best opening fell to Agirretxe, who entered the box following a knock-down from Xabi Prieto, but somehow pulled his shot wide of the far post as he approached the six yard box. Their only other attempt on goal in the second period was a free-kick from Valdes which flew just over the bar. Roque Santa Cruz missed one of the chances of the game with 12 minutes remaining, heading wide of the near post from only four yards out, but was under pressure from Bravo. Fernando Tissone had an even better chance to score later on, putting a free header wide following a corner. Antoine Griezmann came off the bench and turned a Malaga defender to deliver a deep cross, but Willy Caballero was able to pluck it out of the air. Real Sociedad now have six points after five games and are in worrying form compared to the barnstorming run they produced at the end of last term to finish fourth. Malaga are now unbeaten in their last three games, and have five points.