MADRID, Spain — Real Sociedad crushed 10-man Osasuna 5-0 on Saturday ahead of its must-win Champions League game against Manchester United.
Sociedad dominated the visitors at its Anoeta Stadium with Ion Ansotegi, Inigo Martinez, and Antoine Griezmann all scoring through headers from set pieces, with the last coming after Osasuna defender Jordan Loties was shown a red card.
Haris Seferovic released Chori Castro to score in the 81st minute before capping the rout himself by scoring Sociedad’s fifth with two minutes to play.
Sociedad goes into Tuesday’s match against the English champions winless in the continental competition and six points behind second-place Bayer Leverkusen with three games left to play. United leads Group A with seven points.
Real Madrid must beat Rayo Vallecano later Saturday to remain six points behind Spanish leader Barcelona, which was a 1-0 winner over Espanyol on Friday. Barcelona leads the championship with 34 points, Atletico Madrid has 30 and Madrid has 25.
Osasuna held on for the first half hour but its defence unraveled from the 33rd minute onwards when Sociedad finally capitalized from one of its many set pieces.
Ansotegi met Ruben Pardo’s corner kick to open the scoring, and Martinez doubled the lead soon after the restart as he ran unmarked at the near post to squeeze home the second goal in the 47th.
Loties was shown a straight red card as the last defender back after tripping Carlos Vela in the 49th minute.
Griezmann took his season total to seven goals with his sixth scored in four games before the hour mark, after goalkeeper Andres Fernandez tipped an in-swinging corner straight to the Frenchman.
Griezmann and Vela were taken off with an eye on the game with United, but the hosts continued to overwhelm their opponents.
Castro rounded Fernandez before scoring from a tight angle with his weaker right foot and Seferovic, who replaced Vela, was well-placed when the ball bounced into the box to score the final goal.
In other 12th round games on Saturday, Almeria plays Valladolid and Sevilla faces Celta Vigo.
Atletico Madrid plays Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.
