Ruben Castro continued his goalscoring run with a fourth in five games to hand Real Betis a point at Real Sociedad.
Fourth goal in five games earns draw at Sociedad
Ruben Castro continued his goalscoring run with a fourth in five games to hand Real Betis a point at Real Sociedad.
The hosts had the better of the opening period and were given the opportunity to take the lead five minutes before half-time when Jose Canas handled inside the area, but Fabricio made a fine save to deny Imanol Aggiretxe from the penalty spot.
Sociedad did eventually go in front thanks to another in-form striker, though, as Carlos Vela swept home Agirretxe's cross 11 minutes after the interval.
But Castro applied the finishing touch to Jefferson Montero's fine run and pass 20 minutes from time to ensure the points were shared.
Although located in the bottom half of the table, both sides probably have enough of a cushion not to be involved in a relegation battle in the coming weeks, but neither were happy to settle for the point in an entertaining encounter.
Enaut Zubikarai was starting his first league game of the season in place of the suspended Claudio Bravo and he made a smart stop to deny Castro after he had been fed by Montero on 18 minutes.
At the other end, David Zurutuza came within inches of opening the scoring as his shot from Vela's lay-off trickled just wide and Fabricio was called into action to deny the Mexican minutes later after good link-up play with Agirretxe had created space inside the box.
Agonising
The latter then had the chance to open the scoring from the spot after Canas was penalised for handling from a corner, but Fabricio dived low to his right to make a good save.
Agirretxe made amends for that miss as he was involved in a fine team move that gave Sociedad the lead on 56 minutes.
Vela picked the ball up just inside the Betis half, drove forward and picked out Agirretxe before side-footing his return pass low past Fabricio for his fifth goal in as many games.
Pepe Mel responded to going behind by introducing Jonathan Pereira and Benat and those changes made a difference as Betis improved in the final half-hour.
And Castro brought them level with a smart shot on the turn after Montero had left three Sociedad defenders in his wake.
Both sides then came agonisingly close to winning the game in stoppage time.
First Betis' Roque Santa Cruz was denied by a fantastic save from Zubikarai and then Ion Ansotegi's header came back off the outside of the post for Sociedad.
