(Football news) The home team comes into the game fresh off a 2-1 victory at Mallorca, while Villarreal’s most recent game at this level of competition ended in a 1-1 draw with Getafe.

There is no denying that Real Sociedad’s participation in the Champions League and Copa del Rey has negatively impacted their league performance; as of right now, the Basque team is sixth in the La Liga standings.

While sixth place is not terrible, they did finish fourth the previous season with 71 points after a strong performance, and they are currently 11 points behind Atletico Madrid in fourth place with 25 games remaining.

The White and Blues are only one point ahead of seventh-placed Real Betis, meanwhile, and nine behind Athletic Bilbao in fifth, so they might need to win the Champions League this season to qualify for Europe next term, but even making the next stage of the European Cup is going to be a tall order.

Indeed, Imanol Alguacil’s side suffered a 2-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League clash last week.

Real Sociedad, as mentioned, beat Mallorca 2-1 in the league last weekend, and they will take on Javier Aguirre’s side once again in the second leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final next week, with the tie delicately poised following a goalless draw in their opening clash.

In contrast, Villarreal will go into this game coming off a 1-1 tie with Getafe on Friday, which turned out to be their third consecutive draw in the top division of Spain.

In four of their previous five games at this level, the Yellow Submarine have shared the spoils; nevertheless, part of that run included an impressive 5-3 triumph over Barcelona.

This season, Marcelino’s team is competing in Europe as well. In order to compete in the Champions League in 2024–2025, they will undoubtedly need to win the Europa League. 

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