Without any interest in the Spanish Championship, Real Madrid will use the game against Real Sociedad, which is part of the schedule of the twenty-third round of the tournament in its 2017/2018 edition, as training for the most important duel of the season. At the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid, the game starts on 17:45 (Madrid time).
The recent performance of Real Madrid
But the game that certainly aroused the greatest interest of the players, coaching staff, leaders and especially of the fans is against Paris Saint-Germain. On Wednesday, February 14, the teams will start fighting for a place in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Surely this will affect the decisions of coach Zinedine Zidane in relation to the lineup of the team to face Real Sociedad. Although he has had the week off for training, he can take advantage of the game for testing.
Who can be directly affected by this situation is the one who is considered the best player in the team. The Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (17 games in the Spanish 2017/2018 Championship, eight goals) has made a season well below average.
Two factors help explain the decline in performance, according to Spanish news reports. The lack of better physical conditioning is one of them. In addition, the player would be on a collision course with the leaders, who even went so far as to say that he could be involved in a transaction. Zidane acknowledged the problems and admitted not to use the athlete. So, you can use the game this Saturday to test options.
Even because the departure of this Saturday has relatively little importance. With 39 points (11 wins, six draws and four losses), the Real occupies the fourth place in the Spanish Championship. He is 19 points behind Barcelona, leader. So, in practice, there is no chance of playing the title.
Thus, their only goal of the tournament is to secure a place in the next edition of the Champions League. However, this turns out to be secondary as it continues in the continental tournament this year. Thus, the duel against PSG is an absolute priority. The elimination could even cause Zidane to resign.
The current form of Real Sociedad
In Real Sociedad, the situation is similar. The team does not have any pretension in the Spanish Championship. With 26 points (seven wins, five draws and ten losses) accumulated, it occupies the fourteenth place. There is no sign of being able to overcome Sevilla, sixth and last place in the classification zone for European tournaments, which has seven points more. The relegation is also not a concern. The team has nine points ahead compared to La Coruna, which opens the sticking region.
Thus, the focus of the team in this final stretch of season should be even the Europa League. The debut in the knockout phase of the tournament will be on Thursday, February 15, against Salzburg, Austria, at home.
This should also affect the definition of the escalation. However, in the case of Real Sociedad, coach Eusebio Sacristan has his options very limited. Not only because they have a minor cast, but because of the large number of injured athletes. Defenders Diego Llorente (17 matches in the Spanish 2017/2018 Championship, three goals) and Carlos Martinez (without performances) are in the ward; Ruben Pardo (two matches, no goal), Xabi Prieto (22 matches, two goals) and David Zurutuza (15 matches, in goal); and attackers Imanol Agirretxe (six games, no goal) and Juanmi (16 games, four goals).
History of the matches between Real Madrid and Real Sociedad
Real Madrid won their six most recent matches against Real Sociedad. In the first round of the current season, he scored 3-1.
With the possibility of having practically all of his technically superior and current squad at home, Real Madrid are the best option for a guess in Saturday’s showdown. It has a price of 1.20 in Bet365. Draw shows return of 7.00. Success visitor pays 13.00 per real invested. Quotes were in effect at 12:56 pm on 8/2/2018.