Real Sociedad will meet with Atlético Madrid at the Reale Arena this Copa del Rey as the two sides enter this one in near enough the same form and directly next to each other in La Liga and with something to prove in the cup competitions.
Atlético have already had a tough time in knockout tournaments this season as they squeezed through their Champions League group ahead of Porto and AC Milan, while they lost in the Supercopa de Espana only a week ago as Athletic Club won 2-1 to further heap the misery on the La Liga champions.
⚽ Sesión en el Wanda @Metropolitano con la mirada puesta en el Real Sociedad-Atleti 👀 pic.twitter.com/N09jUyj2X8— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) January 17, 2022
⚽ Sesión en el Wanda @Metropolitano con la mirada puesta en el Real Sociedad-Atleti 👀 pic.twitter.com/N09jUyj2X8
Joao Felix scored for the club that day, but Jose Gimenez also received a straight red card in the game too.
For this one, however, Koke, Yannick Carrasco, Thomas Lemar, and Luis Suarez are all likely to start here as Diego Simeone is expected to make changes.
Geoffrey Kondogbia is also suspended, while Marcos Llorente and Antoine Griezmann are injured and will consequently miss out.
Back in the league for the defending champions, it's been a very weak defence of their title.
Villarreal stole a point off them last time out, while December brought in just one victory over Rayo Vallecano as Real Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, and Mallorca all defeated them last month.
Atlético did ease past Rayo Majadahonda in the Copa del Rey round of 32 as Simeone's side won 5-0 with five different goalscorers.
Back in La Liga though, their title defence is now at a 16-point gap on rivals Real, while the fourth-placed side are level on points with Sociedad having both won nine and lost five.
In truth, the only area that has separated these two sides is the more goals Atlético have managed to net in La Liga this season as they've scored 33 compared to Sociedad's alarming 22 in 20 games, and the champions have only seen this goalscoring record bettered by the league leaders.
Their usual exceptional, world-beating defence has fallen off this campaign, however, as the champions have conceded 24 goals this season from the 20 fixtures gone by, which is quite remarkably just one less than they let in all last year as they stormed to their first title in eight years.
Given the form of either team and how they are side by side in the league table, Forebet predicts a draw here and a game that will see under 2.5 goals. Sociedad’s form has greatly slipped too, but they remain just about where they are expected to be in La Liga.