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:

April 7, 2025
Leganes 20:00 Osasuna
April 11, 2025
Valencia 20:00 Sevilla
April 12, 2025
Real Sociedad 13:00 Mallorca
Getafe 15:15 Las Palmas
Celta Vigo 17:30 Espanyol
Leganes 20:00 Barcelona
April 13, 2025
Osasuna 13:00 Girona
Alaves 15:15 Real Madrid
Real Betis 17:30 Villarreal
Athletic Bilbao 20:00 Rayo Vallecano
April 14, 2025
Atlético de Madrid 20:00 Real Valladolid
April 18, 2025
Espanyol 20:00 Getafe
April 19, 2025
Rayo Vallecano 13:00 Valencia
Barcelona 15:15 Celta Vigo
Mallorca 17:30 Leganes
Las Palmas 20:00 Atlético de Madrid
April 20, 2025
Real Valladolid 13:00 Osasuna
Villarreal 15:15 Real Sociedad
Sevilla 17:30 Alaves
Real Madrid 20:00 Athletic Bilbao

Spanish Primera Liga Table

# Team MP W D L F A G P
1 Barcelona 30 21 4 5 83 29 +54 67
2 Real Madrid 30 19 6 5 63 31 +32 63
3 Atlético de Madrid 30 17 9 4 49 24 +25 60
4 Athletic Bilbao 30 14 12 4 46 24 +22 54
5 Villarreal 29 13 9 7 51 39 +12 48
6 Real Betis 30 13 9 8 41 37 +4 48
7 Celta Vigo 30 12 7 11 44 43 +1 43
8 Real Sociedad 30 12 5 13 30 32 -2 41
9 Rayo Vallecano 30 10 10 10 33 35 -2 40
10 Mallorca 30 11 7 12 29 37 -8 40
11 Getafe 30 10 9 11 30 25 +5 39
12 Sevilla 30 9 9 12 34 41 -7 36
13 Girona 30 9 7 14 37 46 -9 34
14 Osasuna 29 7 13 9 33 42 -9 34
15 Valencia 30 8 10 12 34 47 -13 34
16 Espanyol 29 8 8 13 31 40 -9 32
17 Alaves 30 7 9 14 33 44 -11 30
18 Leganes 29 6 9 14 28 46 -18 27
19 Las Palmas 30 6 8 16 34 51 -17 26
20 Real Valladolid 30 4 4 22 19 69 -50 16

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