🏏 Sun, 11 Oct 2026 16:15 CEST
Real Sociedad
vs
Deportivo La Coruna
4-4-2 vs 4-4-2
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Seventh meets eighth with both sides level on 10 points after seven matches. Goal difference separates them: Deportivo sit at +2, Real Sociedad at -4. Leaders Barcelona are already on 24 points from eight games, so a 14-point gulf means neither side can afford to drop anchor here.
- The records behind those identical totals could hardly be more different. Sociedad have won three, drawn one and lost three while shipping 13 goals in seven outings. Deportivo have lost just once - 0-1 at home to Sevilla - but four draws have cost the promoted side momentum, and they have conceded only eight.
- Sociedad arrive on a W-D-W-L-W run, yet all three wins have come on the road: they scored three times in victories at Elche and at Valencia. At home it has been bleaker, with a 0-3 defeat to Atletico Madrid and a goalless draw against Celta Vigo. Rediscovering a cutting edge in San Sebastian is the subplot here.
- Both managers have gone 4-4-2, setting up a straight four-against-four contest in midfield. Sociedad field 23-year-old Arsen Zakharyan, the former Dinamo Moscow playmaker, alongside set-piece taker Carlos Soler, whose career has taken in Valencia, Paris Saint-Germain and West Ham, plus the tireless Venezuela international Yangel Herrera. Deportivo answer with 163cm metronome Mario Soriano, an Atletico Madrid academy product, and 30-year-old captain Diego Villares, who climbed from the Galician lower leagues.
- Sociedad's back line is strikingly young. The centre-back pairing is 21-year-old Senegal defender Mamadou Sarr, a 194cm aerial presence developed at Strasbourg who arrived via Chelsea, and 20-year-old Spain U19 international Jon Martin. On the left, Sergio Gomez brings a different profile: a Barcelona academy graduate with spells at Borussia Dortmund, Anderlecht and Manchester City, and a precise left foot from wide areas.
- Deportivo's defensive unit is a cosmopolitan mix. Jose Maria Gimenez, the 31-year-old Uruguay captain who spent more than a decade at Atletico Madrid, partners 193cm Poland youngster Bright Ede, born in 2007. Veteran Joaquin Navarro, born in 1990, covers the right. Behind them stands Leonardo Roman, the 26-year-old goalkeeper signed from Mallorca this summer for around nine million euros and installed as clear first choice.
- Jeremay Hernandez carries Deportivo's attack from the left flank. The 23-year-old, listed at 169cm, takes both penalties and free-kicks and is rated as a player capable of things others only imagine. Up front alongside Bill Nsongo - a forward who presses from the front and finishes - and with 21-year-old David Mella providing width, Deportivo will test that inexperienced Sociedad rearguard.
- Japan international Takefusa Kubo begins on the bench. The 25-year-old right winger thrives on left-footed dribbling and the ability to hold the ball under pressure, a path that took him from FC Tokyo to Real Madrid and through loans at Mallorca, Villarreal and Getafe. With Sociedad short of goals at home this season, his introduction looks a live option if the game turns scrappy.
- Captain Mikel Oyarzabal is also among the substitutes, a significant call given the left-footed forward scored the winner in the Euro 2024 final and remains the emblem of the club. In his place the front two is Croatia international Luka Sucic, a 185cm left-footer, and Portugal forward Goncalo Guedes, whose career has run through Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain and Valencia.
- Deportivo's bench carries serious mileage. Angelino, a 29-year-old left-back developed in the club's own academy, is back where he grew up on loan from Roma after stints with Manchester City and RB Leipzig. Adama Traore offers another gear entirely: the 30-year-old right winger made more than 100 Premier League appearances with Wolverhampton Wanderers and could be unleashed late.