Real Sociedad vs Mallorca prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2023-10-20 12:00.
An 89th minute penalty from former player Antoine Griezmann cruelly denied Real Sociedad what would have been their 13th point from six La Liga (LL) matches since the start of September (W4, L2). Nonetheless, they remain a scoring juggernaut in San Sebastián in recent weeks, piling up 12 goals on the way to three consecutive LL victories, even despite conceding a trio of goals to both Getafe (W 4-3) and Granada (W 5-3).
That’s probably a great surprise given they scored just 26 league goals at home last season – fewer than some bottom-half clubs including relegated Espanyol – including a 1-0 victory over upcoming opponents Mallorca. Recent H2H history, which features Sociedad winning eight of the last ten competitive H2Hs ‘to nil’, suggests it’ll be their defence spearheaded by centre-back pairing Igor Zubeldia and Robin Le Normand that troubles Mallorca the most.
But it would be naive to take that H2H record in isolation and assume that the Mallorcans have no bullets to fire. Mallorca have netted nine goals against their last five LL opponents, making it clear that their defence is to blame for their worst nine-game start to a top-flight league season since 2005/06. Despite that, head coach Javier Aguirre recently spoke of how happy he is with the state of the club, both on and off the pitch.
There have indeed been some positives to take from their current three-game streak of LL draws, particularly as they were all against clubs who were in the top half of the standings during the international break. That left Mallorca with a 71% win-draw rate as pre-match outsiders this LL season, further confirming that Sociedad can’t take this game for granted.
Players to watch: Takefusa Kubo credited his move to Sociedad for rejuvenating his career in a recent interview, and he has repaid their faith by scoring in four of their five LL home fixtures this season, even opening the scoring within ten minutes three times! Mallorca striker Vedat Muriqi missed Kosovo’s only international game through suspension so he should return fresh and in pursuit of a fourth away LL goalscoring appearance of 2023/24.
Hot stat: All but two of the last nine LL matches involving either club produced over 2.5 total goals.