Real Sociedad in European football

Summary

Real Sociedad has never reached a European final. Their deepest run came in the 1982–83 European Cup, where they made the semi-finals and lost narrowly to eventual champions Hamburger SV. The club has played in the UEFA Champions League group stage three times. In 2003–04, having qualified directly as runners-up in La Liga, they advanced from their group before losing to Lyon in the first knockout round.

A decade later, in 2013–14, after three years in the second division and no other European football in between, they faced Lyon again in the playoff round, this time eliminating them for revenge, but then finished last in their group. They returned to the Champions League in 2023–24, again progressing past the group stage for only the second time. In the Europa League, Real Sociedad first entered the group stage directly in 2017, having fallen in the final qualification round three years earlier.

In 2020, they seemed destined for group-stage elimination, trailing in the 90th minute of the final matchday. A stoppage-time equalizer against SSC Napoli earned them a point, while a goal scored at almost the same moment in the other group match caused AZ Alkmaar, who had been set to advance, to lose and be eliminated instead.