A solitary effort from Raul Tamudo was enough to see Real Sociedad edge past Real Mallorca on Monday.
Sociedad move to within touching distance of European places
A solitary effort from Raul Tamudo was enough to see Real Sociedad edge past Real Mallorca on Monday.
A narrow 1-0 victory on home soil sees Sociedad climb into eighth spot in the Primera Liga standings, three points adrift of the European places.
Conditions on the north coast of Spain did neither side any favours in a contest played in heavy wind and driving rain.
It was, however, the hosts who were able to steer a path to victory, with Tamudo heading home his sixth goal of the season on 55 minutes.
The first half was a largely forgettable affair in terms of goalmouth incidents, with the best opportunity arriving in the 43rd minute when Tamudo's attempted chip over Dudu Aouate was batted away by the Mallorca goalkeeper.
Sociedad started to take control of the match in the second half, though, and nearly went ahead in the 47th minute when Aouate almost put the ball in his own net in attempting to parry an Antoine Griezmann corner.
Goal gaping
The home side did take the lead 10 minutes after the re-start when Tamudo got on the end of Daniel Estrada's right-wing cross and sent a downward header past Aouate at his near post.
Sociedad really should have been celebrating a bigger win by the end, but Tamudo shot wide before Xabi Prieto, standing near the touchline, curled a shot against the crossbar with the goal gaping after Aouate had raced out to deny David Zurutuza.
Mallorca tried to fight their way back into the game and substitute Akihiro Ienaga brought a save out of Claudio Bravo in the 75th minute.
However, as Mallorca pushed forward in search of late equaliser, Sociedad created two great chances to kill the game off, although both were spurned.
Mikel Aranburu fluffed his attempted lob with only Aouate to beat, before Imanol Agirretxe chipped over from the edge of the box with the goal unguarded after Aouate had ventured forward.
Neither of those misses proved costly, though, and the Segunda Division champions could celebrate a win that could get them dreaming of Europe over the next few months rather than just trying to escape relegation.
