Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad 24/11/19

24 November 2019

Real Madrid’s hopes of keeping pace with Barcelona at the top of La Liga (LL) table will be on the line this weekend when Real Sociedad arrive at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

Unbeaten in their last three LL outings (W2, D1), the hosts sit second in the table, level on points with arch-rivals Barcelona. Importantly for Zinedine Zidane, his men have shut out their rivals in all three of their previous league games, scoring 4+ match goals twice in the process. Although a shock goalless draw with Betis brought Real’s four-game winning LL home run to an end, Los Blancos have yet to taste defeat at home this term (W4, D2). Notably, three of those triumphs have seen Real Madrid score at least three goals, as they enter this round as LL’s third-best attacking home side. Los Merengues could add a few more goals to their impressive goalscoring tally, given that they’ve scored over 2.5 match goals in eight consecutive top-flight H2Hs with Real Sociedad at the Bernabeu (W8) before going down 2-0 last season.

Meanwhile, the visitors have picked up a little bit of everything in their last three league games (W1, D1, L1), with both of their results (win/loss) in that sequence coming via the identical 2-1 scoreline. Much more aggressive in the second half, the Basque outfit have bagged four of their last five LL goals after the break. Also, none of Sociedad’s previous six league road trips has ended in a stalemate (W4, L2), with three of those matches seeing the winners on the day keep a clean sheet. But, while three of Sociedad’s four away triumphs came against sides from the bottom half of the table, both of their road defeats have arrived against the top-six teams.