Rayo Vallecano roar back to draw six-goal thriller with Real Sociedad in LaLiga

[p]Both sides’ respective cup exploits had taken precedence over their league campaigns this season, as the UEFA Conference League semi-finalists hosted the newly-crowned Copa del Rey winners.[/p][p]That latest piece of silverware for La Real had already secured Europa League football for next season, but Pellegrino Matarazzo’s side certainly weren’t lacking motivation after a bright start here.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/barrenetxea-muguruza-ander/A3vo4Lf6/"]Ander Barrenetxea[/a] engineered a chance for himself in the opening exchanges, when he weaved his way into the Rayo box before his shot was parried to safety by [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/cardenas-dani/0v264VE8/"]Dani Cardenas[/a].[/p][image alt="It was a crazy six-goal thriller" id="2a55e91d-de87-4aa6-892a-732fbe853e99" credit-line="Opta by StatsPerform" guid="452bf27c-a0a2-4253-b8b0-0363c32cfdad" original-width="1920" original-height="1080" /][p]Further opportunities then came for [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/caleta-car-duje/K44QNA2A/"]Duje Caleta[/a]-Car and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/kubo-takefusa/fqdLdpc3/"]Takefuso Kubo[/a] in a lively opening 15 minutes.[/p][p]The visitors eventually drew first blood thanks to a moment of star quality from [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/oyarzabal-mikel/dQ1P695O/"]Mikel Oyarzabal[/a], [b]as he latched onto Barrenetxea’s pass and glided his way past several [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/rayo-vallecano/8bcjFy6O/"]Vallecano[/a] defenders, before clinically dispatching his effort into the bottom corner.[/b][/p][p]The hosts looked to have responded immediately when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/martin-carlos/dnvBgOsP/"]Carlos Martin[/a] converted home from close range, but [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ratiu-andrei/Eo8SAMoI/"]Andrei Ratiu[/a] was penalised for handball in the build-up, sparing the visitors’ blushes.[/p][p]They did eventually find a wonderfully worked equaliser, though, [b]when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/camello-sergio/fFlZRkvF/"]Sergio Camello[/a] showed some brilliant close control to navigate a tricky path through the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/real-sociedad/jNvak2f3/"]Sociedad[/a] defence and fire a left-footed finish past [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/remiro-alejandro/UmDjbtRC/"]Alex Remiro[/a].[/b][/p][p]Camello spurned a golden opportunity to put Rayo in front shortly after the restart, but La Real were looking the more likely to add their advantage as the half wore on.[/p][image alt="Key match stats" id="b40a5ffa-36f7-44fc-b47d-c55c9f6403a5" credit-line="Opta by StatsPerform" guid="e5fe2745-8e5a-4a6a-800b-9b5da7ecfda5" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p]Cardenas was twice called into action to deny Oyarzabal and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/oskarsson-orri-steinn/K2gCwDJE/"]Orri Oskarsson[/a], before the latter added his name on the scoresheet to re-establish La Real’s lead. [/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/gomez-sergio/fmGvlHVM/"]Sergio Gomez[/a] teed up the Iceland international, who took touches inside the box before calmly finishing past Cardenas at the end of a very well-worked Sociedad break.[/b][/p][p]Rayo looked to have wiped out Sociedad’s advantage again, when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/diaz-pedro/2i6AHS2l/"]Pedro Diaz[/a] applied the deftest of finishes past Remiro, but the goal was controversially disallowed after a lengthy VAR review, determining that Ratiu had fouled [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/marin-pablo/Ye976xiA/"]Pablo Marin[/a] before the Rayo breakaway.[/p][p][b]Oyarzabal made no mistake from the subsequent penalty, rifling the ball into the roof of the net amid the backdrop of the enraged Los Franjirrojos crowd.[/b][/p][embed guid="fe76cbbc-9dae-49c3-9798-279d0ef6640a" url="https://x.com/RayoVallecano/status/2048404685606760598" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]It looked like a grandstand finish may ensue when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/lejeune-florian/fNu1l3xc/"]Florian Lejeune[/a] converted from close range to halve the deficit, before [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/alemao/ljVRztTj/"]Alemao[/a] headed home from close range deep into added time to give the hosts a share of the spoils.[/b][/p][p]It is a result which extends Sociedad’s winless run in LaLiga meetings to six matches. Additionally, La Real have now only won one of their previous five top-flight matches. Meanwhile, Inigo Perez’s side will be somewhat vindicated after that late moment of elation, increasing the gap between themselves and the bottom three to five points.[/p][p][b]Flashscore Man of the Match: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/oyarzabal-mikel/dQ1P695O/"]Mikel Oyarzabal[/a] (Real Sociedad)[/b][/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/rayo-vallecano-8bcjFy6O/real-sociedad-jNvak2f3/summary/stats/?mid=fXtpkxvB"]Catch up on the match stats here.[/a][/b][/p]