There is a full set of fixtures to look forward to on Thursday night in the 2020/21 UEFA Europa League group stages. One of the biggest games of the evening takes place at the Anoeta, San Sebastián as Real Sociedad play host to Napoli.
This is a group F match and Real Sociedad come into the game with 3 points while the visitors are yet to get off the mark.
Real Sociedad started their Europa League group stage campaign with a 1-0 victory away at Rijeka. It was a tough match in Croatia but Real Sociedad kept going to the final whistle and managed to score the winning goal in the 93rd minute.
Real Sociedad continued their good start to the La Liga season by recording a 4-1 victory over Huesca at home. That result was good enough to see them remain at the top of the Spanish league and means Real Sociedad have won each of their last 4 matches in all competitions. In fact, Real Sociedad have only tasted defeat once this season having played 8 games.
Trends show Real Sociedad are difficult to beat at home in the Europa League. They have lost only one of their last 6 home games in the competition. They have scored 2 or more goals in 4 of their last 5 home Europa League matches but have failed to win in their last two attempts, the most recent being a 2-2 draw at home against Salzburg in 2018.
Napoli made a disappointing start to their Europa League campaign as they suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at home against AZ. The Dutch club took the lead 12 minutes into the second half and managed to hold on to secure the victory in a match Napoli were expected to win.
Napoli have made a decent start to the Serie A season and come into this game sitting in second place. They have won 4 of their 5 Serie A games, with the only defeat coming away against defending champions Juventus. However, recent Europa League results have been poor and Napoli have lost each of their last 4 matches in the competition. Two of those defeats have come away from home at Salzburg and Arsenal, both in 2019.
Trends show Napoli have little trouble in scoring goals away from home in the Europa League but keeping clean sheets has been a problem.
Team news and Real Sociedad will be without the injured trio of Alex Sola, Asier Illarramendi, and Luca Sangalli. There are also doubts over the fitness of Adnan Januzaj, Ander Barrenetxea Muguruza, Igor Zubeldia, Joseba Zaldua, and Martín Merquelanz.
Napoli travel with the possibility of a full squad available. It will be interesting to see how many changes manager Gennaro Gattuso makes from the weekend considering they really need to take something from the match.
This should be an extremely competitive game, with the hosts hoping to build on their victory from last week and the visitors trying to get their first points on the board. We expect to see both teams find the back of the net and the possibility of over 2.5 goals scored in a draw.