Real Sociedad forward Mikel Oyarzabal on Friday scored in stoppage time to earn a 1-0 win at Valencia in their final La Liga game.
Oyarzabal, 19, who also scored a winner to beat leaders Barcelona last month, capped his debut campaign by scoring a rebound deep in stoppage time at Estadio Mestalla.
Valencia striker Santi Mina hit the post in the 71st minute.
Photo: EPA
Sociedad closed out the season with three straight wins and sit in eighth place before the rest of the final round.
Valencia were left 11th after a fourth consecutive loss to end the season.
Barcelona can repeat as league champions with a win at Granada. If Barcelona drop points, Real Madrid can win the title with a victory at RC Deportivo de La Coruna.
Meanwhile, Spain’s professional soccer league is to investigate allegations that the game between Real Sociedad and Rayo Vallecano de Madrid on Sunday last week might have been fixed, Liga de Futbol Profesional president Javier Tebas said on Friday.
Newspaper El Mundo earlier reported that irregular betting patterns had been observed on the match, which finished 2-1 to Real Sociedad and left Rayo on the brink of relegation.
According to the newspaper, the odds on Real Sociedad winning went from 2.6 to 3.8 during the week, before dropping to 2.7 on May 7 as more bets were placed.
Speaking to radio station Cadena Ser, Tebas said the league had spent years working to clean up Spanish soccer and investigated “even the smallest of rumors.”
“When you hear rumors you can’t look the other way. If we end up archiving this case we’ll be very happy,” he said.
However, Tebas downplayed the likely significance of the reported betting patterns, saying: “That game, Real-Rayo, had abnormal patterns, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
“On Saturday [May 7], money started to come in against Rayo winning, their odds went down by more than a point, and you have to monitor that, but it doesn’t mean anything,” Tebas said.
“It’s an international [betting] market that focuses a lot on the league table,” he added.
At a news conference on Friday, Rayo Vallecano’s entire squad, plus coach Paco Jemez and club president Raul Martin Presa, denied any wrongdoing.
“If we had any suspicion that someone had sold themselves we wouldn’t be doing this news conference. We are all united and clean,” goalkeeper David Cobeno said.
Real Sociedad and the league did not immediately respond to requests for comment from reporters.
Rayo Vallecano also released a statement denouncing the accusations and denying El Mundo’s report that an argument took place at halftime in the Rayo dressing room at Real Sociedad.
“We deny that there was any incident or argument between players in the dressing room at halftime,” it said, adding that Rayo’s players would suffer salary cuts if the club was relegated to the second division.
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