Atlético Madrid were goalless for 83 minutes at Anoeta, and then scored three
Real Sociedad and Atlético produced a match with almost nothing in it for 83 minutes. A handball, a penalty and two late goals later, Atlético had a 3-0 away win.
Sep 14, 2026
For 83 minutes at Anoeta this was the sort of match nobody writes about. Real Sociedad and Atlético Madrid passed it sideways, missed what few chances came, and looked set for the goalless draw the football deserved. Then Atlético scored three times from the 84th minute onwards and walked off with a result that reads nothing like the game that produced it.
Three goals in the time it takes to lose one
The breakthrough came from the spot. Job Ochieng handled inside the area in the 82nd minute, and two minutes later Alejandro Grimaldo sent Álex Remiro the wrong way for his first goal since joining Atlético. In the 90th Grimaldo turned provider, and Jonathan David held off Sergio Gómez, took the ball past him and finished for his own first Atlético goal. Giuliano Simeone made it three on the break in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
Diego Simeone had made the change that mattered long before any of it. On the hour he sent on Johnny Cardoso, Koke and David together, and Atlético at last started to carry some threat. They finished with 11 shots to Real Sociedad’s four despite seeing less of the ball, 46.4 per cent to 53.6. It still took a handball for the first goal to arrive.
Atlético needed this more than the table shows
They came to San Sebastián on the back of a 2-1 defeat at Anfield in the Champions League on Wednesday and a 3-0 beating at Athletic Bilbao on 5 September. A third straight loss would have started a very different September conversation about Simeone. They did it without Julián Álvarez too. He pulled up in Saturday’s training session with a muscle strain and the club ruled him out after tests, days after his first start of the season, the full 90 minutes at Anfield.
The win puts Atlético fourth in La Liga on 10 points from five matches, level with Alavés and Sevilla and two behind Real Madrid. Real Sociedad stay 12th on seven from six, with three defeats now. Nothing in the performance suggested either side has fixed much. Atlético found three goals in the window when Real Sociedad ran out of legs, and in September that counts the same as a good ninety.
David’s first is the detail worth keeping
David arrived with a reputation for scoring the unglamorous ones, and this was exactly that: a pass into feet, a defender to get past, a finish with no fuss about it. He started on the bench and had half an hour to make his case. Álvarez will be back soon enough, and two strikers competing for the same shirt is a better problem for Simeone than the one he had at 0-0 with seven minutes left.