Preview: Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad - prediction, team news, lineups

Real Madrid will be aiming to make it successive wins at the start of their 2026-27 La Liga campaign when they welcome Real Sociedad to Bernabeu on Wednesday night.

Los Blancos started their season with a 2-1 success over Espanyol on Sunday, while Real Sociedad opened up with a 1-0 defeat to Real Betis in Seville.

Match preview

Real Madrid left it late to collect all three points against a tricky Espanyol side on Saturday night, with the two teams level at 1-1 until Carlos Espi came up with a 90th-minute winner for Los Blancos, as the 21-year-old capped his debut with a spectacular goal.

Jose Mourinho's side will now play what is technically a gameweek one fixture against Real Sociedad, with the match, scheduled for the opening set of fixtures, being postponed due to the fact that Real Madrid had a number of players involved in the latter stages of the 2026 World Cup.

Real Madrid will know that the room for error this season is small if they are to finish above a Barcelona team that thumped Elche 5-0 in their campaign opener.

It has been an impressive summer transfer window from Real Madrid, with the club adding Yan Diomande, Marc Cucurella, Espi, Denzel Dumfries, Ibrahima Konate and Bernardo Silva to their squad.

Los Blancos are not expected to be busy in the final stages of the market, with Mourinho confident that he has a squad capable of challenging on all fronts during what is shaping up to be a very interesting 2026-27 campaign for the 36-time Spanish champions.

Real Sociedad, meanwhile, started their 2026-27 campaign with a 1-0 defeat to Real Betis; Rodrigo Riquelme scored the only goal of the match in the 63rd minute.

The Basque outfit finished 10th during a disappointing 2025-26 La Liga season, so there is plenty of room for improvement this term, but they will play in the league phase of the 2026-27 Europa League courtesy of their Copa del Rey success last season.

Pellegrino Matarazzo's side have not made a single signing this summer, but they have managed to keep hold of star player Mikel Oyarzabal, who had allegedly been of interest to Barcelona.

Real Sociedad have only won 38 of their previous 185 matches against Real Madrid, and they suffered a 4-1 defeat to Los Blancos when the pair last locked horns in February of this year.

La Real have not actually overcome Real Madrid since May 2023, and that is their only success in the last 15 meetings between the two sides in all competitions, demonstrating the size of the away side's task in this particular fixture.

Real Madrid La Liga form:

Real Sociedad La Liga form:

Team News

Real Madrid will once again be without the services of Eder Militao (muscle), Rodrygo (knee), Raul Asencio (thigh) and Ferland Mendy (hip) for the contest with Real Sociedad.

Endrick (muscle) and Aurelien Tchouameni (muscle) remain doubts, while a late check will need to be made on Jude Bellingham, who had ice strapped to his ankle after being replaced in the latter stages of the clash with Espanyol last time out.

Cucurella is likely to be introduced into the starting side, but fellow new signing Diomande is again expected to feature among the substitutes for the first whistle.

Kylian Mbappe will be aiming to get off the mark for the new season on Wednesday night.

As for Real Sociedad, Alvaro Odriozola remains on the sidelines with a long-term knee injury.

Meanwhile, Pablo Marin (muscle), Jon Gorrotxategi (muscle) and Goncalo Guedes (muscle) will need to be assessed before any final decisions are made.

Mikel Oyarzabal was used off the bench against Real Betis last time out, but the Spain international is expected to be introduced into the starting team at Bernabeu.

Real Madrid possible starting lineup:

Courtois; Dumfries, Konate, Huijsen, Cucurella; Bernardo, Valverde; Guler, Bellingham, Vinicius; Mbappe

Real Sociedad possible starting lineup:

Remiro; Aramburu, Zubeldia, Martin, Gomez; Herrera, Soler; Kubo, Sucic, Barrenetxea; Oyarzabal

We say: Real Madrid 3-1 Real Sociedad

Real Sociedad are capable of making this a tricky match for Real Madrid, but we are finding it difficult to back against Los Blancos given the home team's quality in the final third of the field.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.