Real Sociedad vs Valencia prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2024-09-27 16:30.
[p]Only goal difference separates Real Sociedad and Valencia, but neither team would be happy seeing themselves at the wrong end of the league table just above the bottom-three. While relegation isn’t yet an imminent threat so early in the season, extending head coach Imanol Alguacil’s record of having taken La Real to Europe in every full season of his tenure is already looking like a distant dream.[/p]
[p]A 1-1 UEFA Europa League draw at Nice on Wednesday was a welcome distraction of sorts, as it marked Sociedad’s first goal across five competitive games. That should help address their woes of having scored the joint-fewest number of goals after seven La Liga rounds, but two of their three league strikes this season have come at Reale Arena. Unsurprisingly, they’re on a four game losing streak in top-flight matches at home, which is the club’s joint-longest such streak in this competition.[/p]
[p]Sociedad may be pleased to face Valencia in these circumstances having won the last two league H2Hs, which puts Los Ches at risk of three consecutive top-flight H2H defeats for the first time since April 2017. Coach Rubén Baraja is already under pressure as their goalless draw against Osasuna last round failed to lift the morale of a Valencia side that has posted their worst seven-game start to a top-flight season in more than 25 years, picking up just five points.[/p]
[p]The silver lining is that all those points came from their last four games (W1, D2, L1), whilst they have also kept a clean sheet in successive matches. The visitors will hope that the improvement in their performances can set them up to snap their awful record on the road, where they’ve lost all three games this season and five of the last six (D1).[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Takefusa Kubo assisted Sociedad’s winner in the 1-0 result when these sides last met at this venue, but not only is he yet to score in seven personal H2Hs, he has collected a personal-high three yellow cards against Valencia. One Valencia player with happy memories of this venue is Luis Rioja, who scored on his last visit in a 1-1 draw for Deportivo Alavés last season, whilst he also opened Valencia’s scoring in their only win of this campaign.[/p]
[p]Hot streak: The last six league H2Hs produced under 2.5 total goals, with five even seeing less than 1.5 goals.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Sridhar [/i][/p]