First win, and they made it a rout: Real Sociedad hit Lillestrom for six

For twenty five minutes in Norway, this looked like another awkward night. Lillestrom started faster, Thomas Olsen sweeping a shot over the bar inside the opening minute and Yaw Paintsil dragging another wide, while Real Sociedad, winless in four Europa League games, chased the game in the cold. Then Mikel Oyarzabal picked out Sergio Gomez, who fired into the top corner, and the evening changed shape in the space of two minutes.

Gomez scored again almost immediately, Oyarzabal cutting the ball back for him to finish with his right foot, and before half time the captain had a third assist, feeding Luka Sucic to make it 3-0. Three goals, three Oyarzabal assists, and a captain running a game he did not score in. Lillestrom, to their credit, came out swinging again after the break and won a penalty when Jon Martin fouled Gustav Nyheim, but Olsen's spot kick was pushed away by Unai Marrero, the save that kept the rout clean and, in its way, finished the contest as a contest.

After that it was arithmetic. Goncalo Guedes crossed for substitute Orri Oskarsson to tap in the fourth on 64 minutes. Sucic helped himself to his second on 72, calmly slotting home as the ball fell to him in the box, and Arsen Zakharyan added the sixth on 80. The final count flattered nobody: Lillestrom had 14 shots but only two on target, Sociedad 16 with eight, and the 6-0 scoreline matched the visitors' goal tally from their league win at Malaga last weekend.

Context matters with a scoreline like this. Sociedad had drawn two and lost two of their first four games in the competition, a slow start for a side with their European pedigree, and a first win was becoming a need rather than a wish. They got it in the most emphatic available form, away from home, with their captain creating and their goalkeeper protecting the clean sheet at the one moment it wobbled.

Our call is that the rout tells the truth about one thing and lies about another. It is true that the Gomez and Oyarzabal connection, three assists built on one understanding, gives Sociedad a repeatable way of hurting teams, and repeatable is what their first four games lacked. The lie would be reading 6-0 as a corner turned on its own: Lillestrom kept playing openly at 3-0 down, which is brave and also an invitation. Judge Sociedad by the next home game, when an opponent sits in and the captain has to pick a lock rather than run through an open door. If the goals still come, this night was the start of their campaign rather than its highlight.