Real Sociedad vs Rayo Vallecano

The two sides looking to recover from the opening day failures will lock horns at the Reale Seguros Stadium as Real Sociedad take on Rayo Vallecano in their first La Liga meeting since September 2018.

Despite scoring twice beyond the 75th minute against Barcelona on the opening weekend, Real Sociedad succumbed to a 4-2 defeat to begin their third consecutive La Liga season without a win. As a result, ‘La Real’ risk opening a league campaign with back-to-back losses for the first time since 2001/02. However, the hosts are confident of kick-starting the new league campaign this time around as they look to post a fourth home top-flight victory in a row for the first time since February 2020. In addition to an inspiring home form, Imanol Alguacil’s men can draw comfort from winning each of their three home La Liga clashes against newly-promoted sides by 2+ goal margins in 2020/21. Moreover, Real Sociedad have scored over 1.5 goals in 11 of their last 12 home top-flight matches against Rayo Vallecano!

On the other hand, a 3-0 away loss to Sevilla on Matchday 1 has stretched Rayo Vallecano’s winless streak in their La Liga openers to four matches. But after failing to win any of their last three top-flight Matchday 2 fixtures, the visitors’ hopes of bouncing back here look far-fetched. Additionally, ‘Los Franjirrojos’ are winless in their previous ten away La Liga matches, losing nine and drawing one – the joint-worst ongoing streak of any side currently in the division. Yet, Rayo Vallecano can find some comfort in the fact they have only defeated Celta Vigo (16) on more occasions in the top-flight than Sociedad (12). Although it was against second-tier opposition, Andoni Iraola’s men showed they know how to stage upsets on the road last season, avoiding defeat in five of the seven away Segunda fixtures they started as outsiders in 2020/21 (W3, D2, L2).