Villarreal take on the visitors Real Sociedad in the round 29 match of Spanish LaLiga. The match will be played on Friday, March 20th at Estadio de la Ceramica (Villarreal).
Villarreal, during a prolonged crisis two seasons ago, reunited with Marcelino. Moreover, already in 2024/2025, this coach managed to lift his team into the top five. Recently Villarreal have been showing solid and organized football, consistently picking up points even in tight matches. Their home form, in particular, has been strong, allowing them to stay competitive against direct rivals. This allowed them to return to the Champions League — but there they only managed to snatch a late draw against Juventus, while losing the other seven matches. They also exited the cup early and without glory, losing back in 2025 to Racing Santander. However, it seemed that everything was sacrificed for La Liga — and there they have been performing unexpectedly well, competing with Atlético Madrid for 3rd place. For a long time, right up until spring, they were going neck and neck. But in the last round they slipped up against Alavés, managing only a draw. As a result, their more experienced rival moved two points ahead.
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Real Sociedad managed to turn around both their play and results after another coaching change. The Txuri-Urdin spent a long time under the guidance of their own academy product, Imanol Alguacil. It was Imanol who brought them a long-awaited trophy, winning the cup, and also led them to the Champions League playoffs two seasons ago. Recently Real Sociedad have improved significantly, showing more confidence and consistency in their results. Their attacking play has become more productive, which has helped them secure important wins in recent matches. However, the decline had already begun domestically, and the 2024/2025 season ended in failure with an 11th-place finish. Replacing him with Sergio Fernández did not help at first, as the team struggled in the first half of the season. Fortunately, they got it right with Matarazzo — under him, a sharp improvement followed. In the cup, they reached the semifinals and, after a narrow win in Bilbao, repeated a 1–0 result at home against Athletic Bilbao. At the same time, in La Liga they shifted from hovering near the relegation zone to pushing for European spots. They did lose to Atlético Madrid, their upcoming Copa del Rey final opponent. But in the last round, they secured another win against Osasuna.
In the last nine meetings, the teams have been evenly matched, with four wins each. However, The Yellow Submarine won 3–2 away in November. A contender for 3rd place is playing at home. The expectation is that they will manage to win.
Prediction for the match: Villarreal to win.
