Real Sociedad take on the visitors Valencia in the round 36 match of Spanish LaLiga. The match will be played on Thursday, April 16th at Reale Arena (San Sebastian).
Real Sociedad, undoubtedly, lost ground compared to their successes a year ago. Then, under Imanol Alguacil, they finally successfully secured fourth place in La Liga, as the usual suspects like Sevilla were facing a crisis. This result finally brought Champions League football back to San Sebastian. In the Champions League, the Spaniards performed decently, winning their group (edging out Inter on additional criteria after drawing both matches with them). However, in the Round of 16, they drew PSG, to whom they lost both matches despite their attempts to compete. Their decent cup run ended with a couple of draws against modest Mallorca in the semifinals, leading to an exit on penalties. In La Liga, the dense match schedule and unexpectedly high level of Girona and Athletic Bilbao were felt. As a result, sixth place became the ceiling of their possibilities, and they are currently battling with Betis for it. Their chances decreased after another defeat, this time against Barcelona.
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Valencia turned out not to be strong enough for real aspirations for European competitions. The Bats generally play well under their own legend, Barahi. Ruben, who returned to Mestalla last winter, initially lifted the team from the crisis it was in under Gattuso. Then the iconic midfielder of the golden generation of the early century began to show such results with his team in the new season that sparked discussions about the chances of returning to the international arena. After a couple of trademark pragmatic 1-0 victories against Granada and Osasuna, they even managed to climb to seventh place. But then came a defeat to direct competitor Betis and a 2-4 loss to Barcelona. While such results could have been expected, a 0-1 loss at home to the unmotivated newcomer, Alaves, was a clear failure. Moreover, a 0-0 draw with the current Rayo Vallecano are not particularly noteworthy.
After four consecutive draws, last calendar year Valencia won 1-0 at Mestalla and then lost by the same scoreline there in September. Valencia are considered the underdog here, but there are also questions about the hosts' form and results. So, a pragmatic option with under 2.5 goals scored total seems reasonable.
Prediction for the match: Under 2.5 scored goals.
