Real Sociedad 1 - Alavés 1

Real Sociedad: Alberto; Fuentes (Aranzábal 75'), Loren, Pikabea, López Rekarte; Xavi Alonso (Tayfun 65'), Luiz Alberto; Khokhlov, Idiakez, De Pedro (Gurrutxaga 62'); De Paula. 4-2-3-1.
Alavés: Kike; Contra, Eggen, Karmona, Geli; Desio, Pablo; Tomic (Iván Alonso 46'), Jordi Cruyff, Ibon Begoña (Sarriegi 70'); Javi Moreno (Magno88'). 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Real: Idiakez, De Pedro, De Paula for Julio César, Joseba Llorente, Jankauskas / Alavés: Kike, Karmona for Herrera, Téllez.

Goals:
1-0. 42. De Paula. Flying header after long throw from Idiakez.
1-1. 58. Contra. Shot from edge of area which ballooned off Luiz Alberto.

Real Sociedad were unable to give their club president Luis Uranga a victory in his last game in charge of the club before retiring. Uranga took over the reins in 1992, but a couple of bad seasons and criticism from the fans for his management finally convinced him that enough was enough. Despite winning little in his time in charge, with a third place in the 1997-8 league season his best result, he was a popular president, and the players all went up to him to give him their shirts at the end of the match as a sign of respect.

Toshack had picked a home grown team for this derby game, with eight local players in a new look starting line up, changing his 3-3-3-1 formation for the first time to the popular 4-2-3-1 which everyone appears to be using at the moment. Their opponents Alavés have been using it for some time, and Mané saw no reason to change it this time, with Javi Moreno returning as the sole striker after being rested in their UEFA cup quarter final against Rayo on Thursday night. He was forced to leave out his goalkeeper Herrera though, who was caught up in the passport scandal and who was apparently in Italy sorting things out.

Real Sociedad gave it their best right from the start, but were lacking the finishing touch, with shot after shot going wide early on. Then just before half time De Paula finally broke through, hurling himself forward to meet Idiakez's long throw. Real they should have made it two just after the restart when Idiakez drilled a free kick against the crossbar, but from a possible two zero it quickly went to one apiece, Contra getting a lucky rebound off Luiz Alberto to score just minutes after Iván Alonso headed a warning shot against the crossbar. In the dying minutes Kike saved from De Pedro and the crowd bayed for a penalty when De Paula was pushed over in the area, but referee Undiano Mallenco said no.

And so the game ended in a draw, leaving Real Sociedad still in the relegation places missing the two points they needed to draw level with Numancia. Alavés stay in seventh place, but lose a bit of ground on Mallorca and Villarreal who both won. Nevertheless they are happy with their week's work, having qualified for a first ever UEFA cup semi-final which will be in a couple of weeks time against Kaiserslauten. There is no doubt who the best team in the Basque country are at the moment.