Athletic 2-1 Real Sociedad: Berenguer's first-half penalty decides the derby
Iñaki Williams opened the scoring and Álex Berenguer converted a first-half stoppage-time penalty as Athletic held off Real Sociedad at San Mamés.
Athletic Club beat Real Sociedad 2-1 at San Mamés on Sunday, 1 November, in LaLiga's Matchday 11 Basque derby. All three goals came in the first half, and Athletic's lead, restored by a penalty in first-half stoppage time, held through a second half without a goal.
How the goals came
Athletic scored first. Iñaki Williams put the hosts ahead in the 14th minute, with the goal assisted by his brother Nico Williams, according to VAVEL's live coverage of the match. Real Sociedad did not stay behind for long: Luka Sucic equalised in the 30th minute to make it 1-1, and the derby looked set to go to the interval level.
It did not. In first-half stoppage time a VAR check led to a penalty for Athletic, and Álex Berenguer converted it in the 45th minute plus two, per the match header on ESPN and VAVEL's live blog. That gave Athletic a 2-1 lead at half-time, and it was the winning goal.
A second half without a goal
Neither side scored after the break. The match data on ESPN shows Real Sociedad with 62 per cent of the possession over the 90 minutes, so the visitors had the ball and Athletic had the lead. ESPN's expected-goals figures for the match list Athletic at 2.93 and Real Sociedad at 1.40, which suggests Athletic created the better chances overall, though expected-goals numbers are a model's estimate rather than a count of events, and the ESPN page also contains an inconsistency in its shot map, so Torch is treating the stat as indicative only.
What it means
The result is a derby win for Athletic at home, and it came from the two moments the sources agree on: an early goal from Iñaki Williams and a penalty awarded after video review just before the break. For Real Sociedad, the equaliser from Sucic was a response, but the visitors could not find a second goal against an Athletic side that defended a one-goal lead for the entire second half.
Torch has not reported league-table positions here because the sources we could open and cross-check do not give a consistent post-match table. Reaction from the two coaches and any detail on the penalty decision itself were not available in the coverage we could verify, so this recap sticks to the goals, the order they came in, and the match data we could confirm. An editor may want to add the post-match standings and manager comments once they are published by the league or the clubs.