The opening weeks of the new campaign roll on at Reale Arena on Saturday, where Real Sociedad take on Espanyol in the third round of fixtures of the 2026-27 La Liga season. Neither side arrive in San Sebastian in winning form, having both suffered defeats to Real Madrid in their respective most recent outings.
After an initial uptick in fortunes under new head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo that culminated in a Copa del Rey title in April, Real Sociedad’s form tailed off at the end of last season as they failed to win any of their final eight league matches. Txuri-Urdin have now begun the new campaign in similarly disappointing fashion, kicking things off with a 1-0 defeat away at Real Betis.
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Sociedad’s trip to the Bernabeu on Wednesday was always going to be a difficult one as they had failed to beat Madrid in the capital since 2020. Nonetheless, their overall performance left much to be desired as they slumped to a 4-1 defeat, with goalkeeper Alex Remiro making several key saves to prevent the margin of defeat from being even greater.
Espanyol, on the other hand, enjoyed a successful opening-day outing, comfortably dispatching Levante 3-0 thanks to goals from Roberto Fernández and Tyrhys Dolan.
The Periquitos welcomed Jose Mourinho’s Madrid side to the RCDE Stadium in gameweek two last weekend and looked poised for a hard-fought point after Alex Calatrava’s first-half equalizer. However, in the 90th minute, Espanyol failed to deal with a loose ball in the box and were made to pay, ultimately falling to a 2-1 defeat.
Real Sociedad vs Espanyol Head-to-Head and Key Numbers
- There was nothing to separate Sociedad and Espanyol in either encounter last term, as both fixtures ended level.
- Sociedad have not tasted defeat in their last seven games against Espanyol (5W, 2D).
- Espanyol have won just one competitive away game in 2026.
- Txuri-Urdin failed to win any of their final four home games last season, shipping 10 goals in those outings.
Real Sociedad vs Espanyol Prediction
Espanyol hold the upper hand between these two sides form-wise and can take several positives from their two outings so far. Sociedad, meanwhile, have struggled to find inspiration in recent months and have work to do across the board if they are to improve on what has been a disappointing couple of seasons.
However, the Basque club have enjoyed considerable success in this fixture in recent years and have our backing to continue that trend this weekend despite their recent lapses.
Prediction: Real Sociedad 2-1 Espanyol
Real Sociedad vs Espanyol Betting Tips
Tip 1 – Result: Real Sociedad to win
Tip 2 – Goals – Over/under 2.5 – Over 2.5 goals
Tip 3 – Both teams to score: Yes
Edited by Peter Pedroncelli