Real Sociedad vs Mallorca prediction: SPAIN: Copa del Rey betting tips on match 2024-02-26 20:30.
Well out of La Liga’s title race and having lost 2-0 in their Champions League Round of 16 first leg to French giants PSG, Real Sociedad’s most realistic chance of silverware this season still lies in the Copa del Rey. Having won this tournament twice before, most recently during the 2019/20 campaign, the hosts’ supporters might arrive with confidence after drawing the first leg of this semi-final against Mallorca 0-0.
That said, Sociedad hit new lows at the weekend as they were soundly beaten 3-1 on home soil by a struggling Villarreal side, with that result making it six winless matches at Reale Arena for Imanol Alguacil’s side (D4, L2). Four of those outings also saw the San Sebastián outfit fail even to find the back of the net, so inspiration will have to be found elsewhere and could instead come from the fact they’re unbeaten in 11 H2Hs (W9, D2), including a 2-1 triumph over the visitors just a week ago in La Liga.
H2H form gets even worse for travelling Mallorca when focusing on clashes just at this venue, as Los Bermellones have staggeringly lost each of their last 12 competitive away matches against Sociedad. Each of the last nine of those have also witnessed Mallorca fail to even get on the scoresheet so to say that they’ll be up against it here again would be an understatement.
Since Mallorca lifted this trophy for the only time in 2002/03 with help from club legend Samuel Eto'o, this is the joint-furthest they’ve ventured into the competition. But considering that the away side have improved over recent months to lose just four of their past 18 competitive outings (W7, D7), they’ll sense the chance of reaching just their fourth-ever Copa del Rey final in club history.
Players to watch: Current Sociedad and former Mallorca forward Takefusa Kubo has struck seven goals this season, with three of those coming at home within the opening ten minutes. As for Mallorca, they could look to Vedat Muriqi who has five goals to his name this campaign, four of which have come either in the opening ten minutes or after the 80th minute.
Hot stat: Mallorca have scored 3+ goals in four of their six Copa del Rey ties this season.