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 4, 2025
Rayo Vallecano 20:00 Espanyol
April 5, 2025
Girona 13:00 Alaves
Real Madrid 15:15 Valencia
Mallorca 17:30 Celta Vigo
Barcelona 20:00 Real Betis
April 6, 2025
Las Palmas 13:00 Real Sociedad
Sevilla 15:15 Atlético de Madrid
Real Valladolid 17:30 Getafe
Villarreal 20:00 Athletic Bilbao
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

Spanish Primera Liga Table

# Team MP W D L F A G P
1 Barcelona 29 21 3 5 82 28 +54 66
2 Real Madrid 29 19 6 4 62 29 +33 63
3 Atlético de Madrid 29 16 9 4 47 23 +24 57
4 Athletic Bilbao 29 14 11 4 46 24 +22 53
5 Villarreal 28 13 8 7 51 39 +12 47
6 Real Betis 29 13 8 8 40 36 +4 47
7 Rayo Vallecano 29 10 10 9 33 31 +2 40
8 Celta Vigo 29 11 7 11 42 42 +0 40
9 Mallorca 29 11 7 11 28 35 -7 40
10 Real Sociedad 29 11 5 13 27 31 -4 38
11 Sevilla 29 9 9 11 33 39 -6 36
12 Getafe 29 9 9 11 26 25 +1 36
13 Girona 29 9 7 13 37 45 -8 34
14 Osasuna 29 7 13 9 33 42 -9 34
15 Valencia 29 7 10 12 32 46 -14 31
16 Espanyol 28 7 8 13 27 40 -13 29
17 Alaves 29 6 9 14 32 44 -12 27
18 Leganes 29 6 9 14 28 46 -18 27
19 Las Palmas 29 6 8 15 33 48 -15 26
20 Real Valladolid 29 4 4 21 19 65 -46 16

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