Valencia CF | Real Sociedad |
Valencia CF had a huge opportunity to improve its standing and move up the table against Cadiz last week as the team was playing well coming into that match and was against a what should have been a weaker opponent, but they failed to beat them, and in fact Valencia CF lost to them in such a disappointing fashion, even a draw would have been fine at that point, but we lost.
In fact the biggest thing to come out of that match was an alleged racist incident, but the Spanish league did not found any evidence about that either, so Valencia CF has nothing to show for from that match. In fact I'd say racists are now emboldened after all of that, as they know they can discreetly say racist things and they'll even be protected as long as there is no evidence.
The question now is how did the issue affect the team and will the players be focused enough on the match against Real Sociedad. Did the team prepare well enough in training and and how are they going to react. Real Sociedad is a very strong team and has caused Valencia CF all sorts of issues historically, this season they are very strong and are positioned 5th on the table, though form wise Valencia CF are doing slightly better in the last 6 matches with 7 goals scored in 6 matches and 9 points out of 18, while Real Sociedad are 5 goals in 6 matches and only 6 points out of 18. Valencia CF are also in great home form winning the majority of its games, with the last loss at home being against Sevilla in December of 2020.
Real Sociedad also played against Athletic Bilbao in mid week, it was a challenging match in which they managed a draw at home, so they are going to be tired coming into this match and hopefully Valencia CF can take advantage of that and press them high and fight for every ball, force them into fatigue, force them into making mistakes, use that to our advantage and win.
Valencia CF will again be without goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen who is still injured, Maxi Gomez is also injured and will likely not feature, though he might be in the squad and Mangala is also injured, which is nothing new, unfortunately he's been injured for the majority of time and at this point is surplus.
Real Sociedad are missing dozen of key players through injury and suspension and few other are doubtful as well, so they they are playing with half their team being the reserves for this match, plus they are fatigued from their last match just 3 days ago, so that is another negative for them going into this match.
 Valencia | Stat name |  Real Sociedad |
|---|---|---|
| 29 | Games | 29 |
| 35 | Goals | 45 |
| 40 | Goals lost | 29 |
| 28% (8) | Wins | 41% (12) |
| 28% (9) | Draws | 41% (10) |
| 41% (12) | Defeats | 24% (7) |
| 1.21 | Goals per game | 1.55 |
| 1.38 | Goals lost per game | 1.00 |
| 5 (17%) | Clean Sheets | 11 (38%) |
| 47.83% | Ball possession | 54.83% |
| 10.69 | Shots per avg | 11.38 |
| 3.69 | Shots on goal avg | 4.10 |
| 2.38 | Offsides avg | 2.41 |
| 260.00 | Passes avg | 330.07 |
| 75.60% | Completed passes | 79.49% |
Valencia CF Squad: Jaume; Correia, Diakhaby, Paulista, Gaya; Wass, Racic, Soler, Cheryshev; Guedes, Gameiro.
Winning probability: Valencia CF 35% win, 25% draw, Real Sociedad 40% win
Result prediction: Valencia CF 1-0 Real Sociedad
Every metric, every measurement, every statistic, every analysis says that Valencia CF should win this match, Valencia CF is in great home form with 4 wins in row at home now, the team is playing good football the past several matches overall, Real Sociedad just played in mid week and are fatigued and are missing several key players through injury and suspension, so technically Valencia CF should have an easy time winning this match, in fact it should be 3-0 or something like that, but knowing this is Valencia CF, knowing the team always screws up and makes it harder on themselves, I'm expecting a hard fought minimal victory of 1-0, if even that. I'm hoping for a victory, the home form we have tells me a victory is way more likely, but its still unclear with this team.