Madrid After having to put in more effort than anticipated to secure a 4–4 draw and a 5–4 aggregate, Real Madrid advanced to the Copa del Rey final on Wednesday night thanks to a header from Antonio Rudiger with five minutes left in extra time.

After winning the first leg of the semifinal 1-0 in San Sebastian, Real Madrid would have anticipated a fairly easy trip to the final, but Real Sociedad put up a valiant performance that evening and came within minutes of pulling off an upset.

According to Xinhua, Real Sociedad took control of the game in midfield after Endrick’s overhead kick went narrowly wide of the post. In the 16th minute, Mikel Oyarzabal flipped the ball to Ander Barrenetxea, who advanced into the Madrid area and scored with a low shot between goalkeeper Andriy Lunin’s legs after a lengthy move.

Shortly after, defender Nayef Aguerd suffered a calf injury, forcing the visiting club to substitute Aritz Elustondo.

After 30 minutes, Endrick broke the visitor’s offside trap, grabbed a pass from Vinicius, and dinked the ball over goalkeeper Alex Remiro to give Madrid the lead.

For the remainder of the first half, Madrid had most of the possession, but the visiting side came forward again after the interval and was rewarded when David Alaba deflected Pablo Marin’s close-range cross into his own goal in the 72nd minute.

It seemed as if an upset was imminent for a brief period as Takefusa Kubo’s run eight minutes later set up Oyarzabal to make it 3-1 for the visiting.

Real Madrid seemed to have the game won when Aurelien Tchouameni headed in a corner in the 86th minute, only moments after Vinicius had twisted Hamari Traore to set up Jude Bellingham to make it 3-2 and equal the score on aggregate.

But Real Sociedad had a free kick on the outside of the Madrid penalty area after Eduardo Camavinga committed a serious foul in injury time. An unmarked Oyarzabal headed into the goal to force extra time after Sergio Gomez’s exquisite pass.

After Rudiger’s header, Real Sociedad had nothing left to perform another miracle. Madrid had the best of the first half, but the closest either team got to scoring was a Kylian Mbappe attempt that was hurried out of play.