Real Betis 1–0 Real Sociedad: eighteen shots against a goalkeeper rated nine

The plan

Two 4-2-3-1s and a first half with no goals and no cards. Betis had the wide pair, Antony on the right and Riquelme on the left, and the numbers show the ball going through them: Antony finished with three key passes and the highest Betis rating, Riquelme with two key passes and the goal.

Betis took 18 shots to Real Sociedad’s 9, seven on target to three. The expected-goals record disagrees with the shot count: 1.24 for Betis against 1.36 for the visitors, whose fewer chances were the better ones. That gap is the match: one side created more, the other created better, and the goalkeeper at one end was rated 9.0.

Key moment · 63’

The winner came after both benches had moved. Isco replaced Bernal at 58’; Marchal and Oyarzabal replaced Barrenetxea and Kubo in the same minute. Five minutes later Cucho Hernández, the striker, turned provider and Riquelme, the left-sided player, finished. A nine assisting a winger, rather than the reverse, is the pattern this Betis side keeps producing.

Eighteen shots, seven on target, one goal. The difference between a comfortable win and a nervous one was standing in the other goal.— TacticFrame editorial

What the record says about Remiro

Álex Remiro’s 9.0 is the highest rating in the match and one of the highest a goalkeeper takes from a defeat. Six of Betis’s seven shots on target did not go in. Real Sociedad’s four yellow cards, all in the second half, and the substitutions at 72’ and 87’ say the visitors were chasing by then; the xG says they were not far away.

Verdict

• Betis won the shot count 18–9 and lost the expected-goals count 1.24–1.36. Volume was theirs; the best chances were not.
• The goal came from the striker assisting the winger. Hernández’s pass and Riquelme’s finish were Betis’s only conversion from seven on target.
• Remiro’s 9.0 kept it at one. A 1–0 with 18 shots against is a goalkeeper’s match, and the record names him.