La Liga: Rojiblancos Head to the Basque in Search of Redemption

Real Sociedad vs Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid head to the beautiful Basque city of San Sebastian on Sunday hoping to improve on their fourth position in La Liga with a win over Real Sociedad.

Diego Simeone’s men won at the Reale Arena last term and they meet a side which has struggled to get out of the blocks this season. Imanol Alguacil’s Sociedad have made a slow start to the campaign and currently sit in 14^th place, but they ended a five match winless streak with an impressive 3-0 victory over Valencia last week. 

Meanwhile Atleti have been clicking nicely in the Spanish top flight, but they suffered a chastening 4-0 slapping at the hands of Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday. And another setback on Sunday would represent a miserable four days for the title chasers. Had this game taken place a couple of weeks ago I would have been confident of an away victory, but the tide has turned a little in the last week.  

 

Talking Points

Sociedad’s reset is taking time

Iguacil has been in charge at Real Sociedad since 2018 and, in that time, he has established the Basque club as a European force, winning their group at the 2023/24 Champions League before losing to Paris Saint-Germain in the Round of 16. They finished sixth last term and, currently sitting in 14^th place, La Real are already playing catch-up this time around.

With Villarreal starting quickly alongside the Madrid sides and Barcelona storming away, Sociedad’s Basque rivals Athletic Bilbao are in the fifth spot. And the La Liga 2024 betting odds have shunted La Real down to joint sixth favourites to win the title and… they are at a SBOTOP price of 22.00 to be relegated. They won’t win the league and they aren’t going down but Sociedad will view anything but a Champions League place as a mild disappointment; and their plight was not helped by two key departures during the summer transfer window. Centre back Robin Le Normand went to Atletico while midfielder Mikel Merino signed for Premier League title chasers Arsenal.      

Sociedad had strong representation in Spain’s Euro 2024 winning side and these two were among them, and have already been missed in the Basque. But with midfield ace Martin Zubimendi still at the club and captain Mikel Oyarzabal leading the attack this is a high quality outfit. Le Normand has been replaced by the talented Nayef Aguerd on loan from West Ham United and Brais Mendez’ early season form is minimising the loss of Merino. Meanwhile 20 year old Icelandic striker Orri Oskarsson announced his arrival after transferring from Copenhagen, with a brace in the win over Los Ches last week.

Their La Liga 2024 results have been disappointing and it may take time, but I fully expect Sociedad to climb into the top six.        

 

How will Atletico react to Portuguese nightmare?  

The much anticipated Madrid derby turned out to be an important result for Los Rojiblancos last week as the 1-1 draw earned kept them in fourth place, just two points behind Los Blancos in second place. And it was a dramatic finish with bitter sweet moments for Simeone’s side. After trailing to a second half Eder Militao goal, Angel Correa scored a 95^th minute leveller, but midfielder Marcos Llorente will be missing for the Soceidad game because he copped a 99th minute red card.

They may have been exhausted, mentally, after that huge game but Atleti were simply not at the races for their Champions League clash with Benfica and deservedly got thrashed. It was Los Rojibllancos’ heaviest ever defeat against Portuguese opposition in the competition and they only managed four shots in the entire game; none on target. Keeper Jan Oblak called the performance ‘pitiful’ after he pulled off a string of saves to keep the score down and it was a real head-scratcher considering Atleti’s league form.    

Jose Gimenez was uncharacteristically subdued in defence while, in attack, summer signing Julian Alvarez is yet to reach the heights expected following his big money switch from Manchester City. Simeone may put this down to ‘a bad day at the office’ but I bet he won’t let it happen again any time soon!      

 

History

With 26 wins to 18 Atletico Madrid have had the better of this relationship over the last three decades and last season they did the double, winning 2-1 at home and 2-0 at the Reale Arena on the last day of the 2023/24 campaign. 

With one win, three draws and two defeats the hosts have struggled to pick up points, until last week; while Atleti have been more productive with three wins, two draws and that Champions League loss on Wednesday.

Atleti have won two and drawn two on the road this season and are unbeaten in 14 games in total.

 

Betting Tip

All three results are well in play here, each priced Under 3.00, with an away win the most likely outcome at odds of 2.30. The draw is at 2.84 and Sociedad at 2.89 to grab a much needed victory. But I can see these two teams, both in need of a boost, cancelling each other out.    

   

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