Real Sociedad vs Villarreal Preview


Real Sociedad vs Villarreal

Competition – Spanish Primera Liga

Stadium: Reale Arena

Date: 13th January 2025

Kick-off time – 20:00 GMT

Real Sociedad will look to record their first league win in a month when they welcome Villarreal to the Reale Arena on Monday.

It’s been a difficult period for the hosts, who are not only struggling through their worst 18-game start to a La Liga season since 2018/19 but also endured an uncertain winter break during which head coach Imanol Alguacil failed to sign a contract extension by the turn of the year. Things were looking up not too long ago when they collected four wins ‘to nil’ in a five-game period before setbacks against Las Palmas (D 0-0) and Celta Vigo (L 2-0) halted their charge for the top six.

Real Sociedad’s progress up the table had also been hampered by struggling against the current top-six, against whom they have just one win in five games this season (D1, L3). However, they made some progress on that front late in 2024 with a famous 1-0 win over Barcelona.

Considering they are currently on a five-match unbeaten home run (W4, D1), they may be able to record another win against fifth-placed Villarreal, who have also had some difficulties with regularly defeating the best teams in the competition.

The visitors had to settle for a six-point gap to fourth-placed Athletic Club during the break, with manager Marcelino pointing in particular to the fact they conceded the match opener in each of their last four league outings (W1, D1, L2) during a difficult December.

That was even the case in their 5-2 win at lowly Leganés, where they had to come from behind twice.

Whilst that victory meant that Villarreal go into this round a top-four side in the away table, they have picked up just two wins from their six La Liga road trips as underdogs this season (D2, L2).

Other fixtures taking place this week in the Spanish Primera Liga:

February 21, 2025
Celta Vigo 21:00 Osasuna
February 22, 2025
Alaves 14:00 Espanyol
Rayo Vallecano 16:15 Villarreal
Valencia 18:30 Atlético de Madrid
Las Palmas 21:00 Barcelona
February 23, 2025
Athletic Bilbao 14:00 Real Valladolid
Real Madrid 16:15 Girona
Getafe 18:30 Real Betis
Real Sociedad 21:00 Leganes
February 24, 2025
Sevilla 21:00 Mallorca
February 28, 2025
Real Valladolid 21:00 Las Palmas
March 1, 2025
Girona 14:00 Celta Vigo
Rayo Vallecano 16:15 Sevilla
Barcelona 18:30 Real Sociedad
Atlético de Madrid 21:00 Athletic Bilbao
March 2, 2025
Leganes 14:00 Getafe
Real Betis 16:15 Real Madrid
Mallorca 18:30 Alaves
Osasuna 21:00 Valencia
March 3, 2025
Villarreal 21:00 Espanyol

Spanish Primera Liga Table

# Team MP W D L F A G P
1 Barcelona 24 16 3 5 65 25 +40 51
2 Real Madrid 24 15 6 3 52 23 +29 51
3 Atlético de Madrid 24 14 8 2 39 16 +23 50
4 Athletic Bilbao 24 12 9 3 37 21 +16 45
5 Villarreal 24 11 8 5 47 35 +12 41
6 Rayo Vallecano 24 9 8 7 27 25 +2 35
7 Mallorca 24 10 4 10 23 30 -7 34
8 Real Betis 24 8 8 8 30 31 -1 32
9 Osasuna 24 7 11 6 29 33 -4 32
10 Girona 24 9 4 11 32 35 -3 31
11 Real Sociedad 24 9 4 11 20 23 -3 31
12 Sevilla 24 8 7 9 29 34 -5 31
13 Getafe 24 7 9 8 20 18 +2 30
14 Celta Vigo 24 8 5 11 35 38 -3 29
15 Espanyol 24 6 6 12 23 36 -13 24
16 Leganes 24 5 9 10 22 35 -13 24
17 Las Palmas 24 6 5 13 29 41 -12 23
18 Valencia 24 5 8 11 25 38 -13 23
19 Alaves 24 5 7 12 28 38 -10 22
20 Real Valladolid 24 4 3 17 15 52 -37 15

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