Real Sociedad vs Real Madrid

Reale Arena is the venue as Real Sociedad and Real Madrid go head-to-head in a mouth-watering La Liga showdown.

Despite assembling a decent-looking five-game unbeaten La Liga run (W2, D3), bookended by a 1-1 draw at Getafe last time out, Real Sociedad’s effort to qualify for next season’s Europa League is still in jeopardy. Imanol Alguacil’s men will play Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in the coming weeks, which is an ominous run of fixtures, considering they’ve only registered one win against current top-five sides this season (D2, L4). La Real can draw some courage from pulling off that only victory at home, where they’ve recently proved more inclined to share the spoils, with four of their last seven home league games ending level (W1, L2). Against this backdrop, just one of Sociedad’s ten most recent home encounters against Real Madrid has finished as a draw (W3, L6).

Meanwhile, Real Madrid made a decisive step toward dethroning Barcelona, fighting back twice to post a 3-2 triumph in last weekend’s El Clasico to go 11 points clear at La Liga’s table summit. Fresh off extending their unbeaten run in all competitions to 17 matches (W12, D5) and making it five league victories on the trot, Los Merengues head to San Sebastian in pursuit of their third league double over Sociedad in the last five seasons following a 2-1 win in September’s reverse fixture. Playing on the road shouldn’t derail Madrid’s ambition, knowing they take this trip amid a 12-game unbeaten La Liga streak on the road (W8, D4). The only concern for Carlo Ancelotti is that his men have drawn a blank in two of their last three away H2Hs (W1, D1, L1).