As Real Madrid prepare for their first home game of the 26/27 season, here is all you need to know about Real Sociedad ahead of this midweek encounter.
Tomorrow evening, Real Madrid will play their first home game of the season against Real Sociedad, having got the second Jose Mourinho era off to the perfect start on Saturday, with a 2-1 win away to RCD Espanyol in their opening La Liga game, courtesy of a last minute goal from substitute and summer signing, Carlos Espi.
Truth be told, the performance was far from ideal, and if a loose ball hadn’t kindly fallen to Espi - who it’s worth saying showed excellent striker instincts - we’d already be talking about dropped points and having catching up to do on Barcelona, alongside the underwhelming display.
To beat the Copa del Rey winners tomorrow, the performance will simply have to be better in many aspects of the game. The game was initially scheduled to be the opening game, but was postponed to allow more time for the World Cup stars to return. So, what can we expect from the visitors?
As touched on there, Real Sociedad are the reigning Copa del Rey winners, having beaten Los Blancos’ city rivals, Atletico Madrid on penalties in the final, following a 2-2 draw after 120 minutes of action.
In terms of dangermen, fans will be most familiar with Mikel Oyarzabal, who starred for Spain at the FIFA World Cup in the summer, scoring five goals in eight games. He scored a penalty in both fixtures last season, though Real Madrid came out victors on both occasions.
There will also be familiarity with winger Takefusa Kabo, who spent three years in the Spanish capital between 2019 and 2022, before joining La Real on a permanent deal that summer, remaining in the Basque region ever since then.
It was a tough start to the season for Sociedad, losing 1-0 to Real Betis 1-0 in their opening game, despite creating the better chances throughout, as they are often capable of doing. Finishing tends to be their achilles heel more frequently than they would find optimal. Got to hope for similar tomorrow, though limiting their chance creation altogether would be even better.
There will be a few absence's for Pellegrino Matarazzo's side for this one. Former Real Madrid right-back, Alvaro Odrizola, suffered an ACL injury in February, and is still recovering, whilst winger Ander Barrenextea is a doubt after picking up a knock.
Heading into the game, the visitors are the heavy outsiders with the bookmakers, being priced as high as 7/1 to win the game, so the expectation is that Real Madrid will win this one fairly comfortably, but let's wait and see.
