Motivation is the key here.

Real Sociedad have had a difficult season. The Champions League affected them in La Liga, losing many points in an unexpected way and now are 7th in Conference League position, whilst their optimistic target was TOP4/UCL and the main one was the UEL/TOP6.

However, they still have chances. Are 1 point below Betis with 3 rounds remaining to play, and next weekend will play against Betis. So win this fixture against Valencia is the key if they want to take their 6th position and qualify for the Europa League.

Several players are in poor form, especially the most important ones such as Kubo, Merino or Oyarzabal. However, I still believe that this team has potential to make better performances. Their recent results have been terrible with only 1 victory in the last 5 games. Some rivals were very strong (Barcelona, Madrid) but others are among the worst in the league and Real Sociedad lost points there (Almeria, Las Palmas, Getafe…).

I expect them to play this fixture with the motivation needed. At home they have good fans support and their players have a lot of quality and potential to make good performances, regardless of their current form.

Furthermore, in the weekend game against Barcelona, coach Imanol made some rotations. He put two key players on the bench (Barrenetxea, Take Kubo) and others were subbed off at 70-75’ (Brais Mendez, Traore, Pacheco). Seeing the lineup and substitutions, I think they have been also with the mind in this important fixture against Valencia.

Valencia made a fantastic season but after seeing their recent performances, I believe that the season is over for them. I thought that they were going to try to get involved in the Conference League/TOP7 fight, but their last games showed that they don’t care about it.

Their main target was to avoid relegation, so it has been a successful season for them. However, I thought that this young team was ambitious, but it isn’t. They are winless in the last 4 with 3 defeats in a row, including weak teams such as Alaves or Rayo Vallecano. The most worrying thing for me is that in their last game against Rayo Vallecano, which was the key for the TOP7 fight, they made a very poor performance, conceded a lot of chances, didn’t push as they used to do, and also in the last minutes were happy with the draw. They just wanted to avoid defeat, but didn’t go for the win and that’s a clear signal of lack of ambition.

They are now 6 points below Real Sociedad with three rounds remaining to play, and their next games are Girona and Celta, both very difficult fixtures to make a 3/3 wins. Furthermore, even winning the three games (which I see almost impossible), they also need Villarreal and Real Sociedad to lose points as they are above them.

So although Real Sociedad isn’t in their best moment of form, Valencia isn't either. But Real Sociedad, as opposed to Valencia, has much more motivation to achieve the Europa League position, as well as fans support/home advantage, and honestly I also see much more quality in their lineup than Valencia’s one.

动机是关键。

皇家社会度过了一个艰难的赛季。欧冠影响了他们在西甲的表现，以意想不到的方式丢了很多分，现在在联盟联赛排名第七，而他们的乐观目标是欧冠联赛TOP4，主要目标是欧冠联赛TOP6。

然而，他们仍然有机会。我们落后贝蒂斯1分，还有3轮比赛，下周末将对阵贝蒂斯。因此，如果他们想要保住第六名的位置并晋级欧联杯，赢得这场对瓦伦西亚的比赛是关键。

几名球员状态不佳，尤其是最重要的球员，如久保、美利奴和奥亚扎巴尔。然而，我仍然相信这支球队有潜力取得更好的成绩。他们最近的战绩很糟糕，最近5场比赛只赢了1场。一些对手非常强大(巴塞罗那、马德里)，但另一些则是联赛中最差的，皇家社会在那里丢了分(阿尔梅里亚、拉斯帕尔马斯、赫塔菲……)

我希望他们带着需要的动力打这场比赛。在主场，他们有很好的球迷支持，他们的球员有很高的素质和潜力来表现出色，不管他们目前的状态如何。

此外，在周末对阵巴塞罗那的比赛中，教练伊曼纽尔进行了一些轮换。他把两名关键球员放在替补席上(巴雷内切亚，久保)，其他人(门德斯，特拉奥雷，帕切科)在70-75分被罚下。从阵容和换人情况来看，我认为他们在对瓦伦西亚的重要比赛中也很有精神。

瓦伦西亚本赛季表现出色，但看了他们最近的表现后，我相信这个赛季对他们来说已经结束了。我认为他们会试图参与到联盟/前7的争夺中，但他们最近的比赛表明他们并不关心这个。

他们的主要目标是保级，所以这个赛季对他们来说是成功的。然而，我认为这支年轻的球队雄心勃勃，但事实并非如此。他们在最后4场比赛中连败3场，包括像阿拉维斯和巴列卡诺这样的弱队。最让我担心的是，在上一场对阵巴列卡诺的比赛中，他们的表现非常糟糕，丢了很多机会，没有像以前那样推进，而且在最后几分钟对平局很满意。他们只是想避免失败，但没有去争取胜利，这是一个缺乏雄心的明显信号。

他们现在落后皇家社会6分，还有三轮比赛，接下来的比赛是赫罗纳和塞尔塔，这两场比赛都很难取得3/3的胜利。此外，即使赢得三场比赛(我认为几乎不可能)，他们也需要比利亚雷亚尔和皇家社会丢分，因为他们在他们之上。

因此，尽管皇家社会没有处于最佳状态，瓦伦西亚也不是。但是皇家社会，与瓦伦西亚相反，有更多的动力去获得欧联杯的位置，还有球迷的支持/主场优势，老实说，我也看到他们的阵容比瓦伦西亚更有质量。