Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad: Mourinho's Bernabeu Challenge

The lights go back on at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night, and with them, an old storyline returns. Jose Mourinho, back in the Real Madrid dugout 13 years after his first spell, walks out in front of a home crowd again – this time with a team under pressure to remember what winning feels like.

Kick-off is at 9pm local time (19:00 GMT) in Madrid, with full buildup from 16:00 GMT and live text commentary on Al Jazeera Sport.

One side arrives as last season’s cup winners. The other, Real Madrid, are trying to avoid a third straight year without a major trophy – something that has not happened to them since 2006.

Sociedad’s Copa del Rey triumph over Atletico Madrid last season ended the usual Barcelona–Real Madrid grip on Spain’s primary cup competition. Between them, the two giants have missed only four of the last 12 Copa finals. Sociedad broke that pattern. Now they walk into the Bernabeu with a different kind of target on their backs.

Mourinho’s second act starts with late drama

If Madrid wanted a smooth opening to the new La Liga campaign, they did not get it. They got Mourinho, though. And with him came chaos, tension – and a stoppage-time winner.

His second spell in charge began with a 2-1 victory away at Espanyol on Saturday, snatched in the 90th minute by substitute Carlos Espi. Jude Bellingham had opened Madrid’s season with the first goal, only for Alex Calatrava to level in Barcelona.

“I think that we deserved to win but that Espanyol didn’t deserve to lose,” Mourinho said afterwards, acknowledging the hosts’ cohesion after a full pre-season without World Cup disruption.

The game also doubled as a first look at Mourinho’s reshaped Madrid. He unleashed Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Bellingham from the start, with new signings Bernardo Silva, Denzel Dumfries and Ibrahima Konate also involved. Record signing Yan Diomande and Marc Cucurella came off the bench. Names everywhere, patterns still forming.

Bellingham, installed as an attacking midfielder with licence to roam, looked like the centrepiece again. He was heavily involved before scoring with a header from an Arda Guler free-kick that bent wickedly into the box.

Mbappe, La Liga’s top scorer in both of his seasons at the club, found space early on down the right but was denied by the goalkeeper and never quite clicked into his usual ruthless rhythm. On the opposite flank, Vinicius spent most of the evening being chopped down, winning foul after foul as Espanyol targeted him relentlessly.

In the end, it was Espi’s instinctive finish from a loose ball that spared Madrid from dropping points on opening day. The win arrived late, but the warning signs about control, composure and balance came early.

The Mourinho challenge: trophies, egos and Barcelona

The job in front of Mourinho is brutally simple on paper and brutally complex in reality. Bring order to a dressing room that descended into chaos last season. Stop Barcelona from pulling off a La Liga three-peat. Put trophies back in the cabinet.

Bellingham’s trajectory mirrors Madrid’s recent story. He exploded in his first season after joining from Borussia Dortmund, then faded along with the team over the next two campaigns. No league title. No Champions League. No major silverware at all.

Mourinho has responded by making him the heartbeat of his attack, closer to goal, trusted to roam. It worked in Barcelona. Now comes the first Bernabeu test.

Mbappe’s numbers in Spain speak for themselves, but his performance at Espanyol showed he is not yet fully sharp. Vinicius, meanwhile, continues to live on the fault line between brilliance and fury.

Vinicius and the need for protection

Mourinho knows that line well. Once the archetypal touchline firebrand, he now talks about helping Vinicius control his emotions.

The Brazilian was involved in several flashpoints with Espanyol fans and players, and Mourinho believes the forward is being singled out.

“There is on the field and off the field,” he said. “The reaction to fans and insults, obviously, if they are not racist or homophobic insults, but the typical insults by fans, then I think he can control it better.

“In the game, when it comes to the fouls and the accumulation of frustration that he feels, that’s the responsibility of the referees, or the judges, as I like to call them, in terms of their responsibility to protect the players and the game.”

It is not the first time Mourinho and Vinicius have been on opposite sides of a storm. Last year, when Mourinho was Benfica coach, he was criticised for questioning Vinicius’ behaviour after the Brazilian said he had been racially insulted during a Champions League tie. Mourinho argued then that the forward provoked opponents with his celebrations.

“When I was Benfica’s coach, I was only interested about Benfica,” he reflected now, drawing a line between that version of himself and the one managing Vinicius at Madrid.

He still believes the treatment on the pitch is different for Vinicius than for others.

“It’s gone into a spiral in which the opponents know what they can do and what they can’t do,” he said. “If the players can provoke and pressure Vini, either physically or with words, if the yellow card is only shown after 10 fouls, if there can be violence, then it’s a type of treatment that I don’t like.”

On Wednesday, all eyes will be on how Vinicius channels that energy in front of his own crowd – and how much protection he actually gets.

Sociedad’s tough start and fragile away record

Real Sociedad arrive as reigning Copa del Rey champions but with a reminder of how unforgiving La Liga can be.

Their league campaign began with a narrow 1-0 defeat at Real Betis. Rodrigo Riquelme’s volley from a Cucho Hernandez cross decided a tight, even contest.

The schedule has not been kind. Two away games to open the season is a hard enough start, especially for a side that won only three of 19 league matches on the road last term. The numbers are blunt. The football is not.

Betis finished fifth last season; now comes a trip to the Bernabeu, where Sociedad’s history is full of goals, drama – and mostly disappointment.

History at the Bernabeu: goals everywhere, wins rare

The last time these two met in La Liga, Real Madrid ran out 4-1 winners. Vinicius Junior scored twice from the spot, with Gonzalo Garcia and Federico Valverde adding the others. Sociedad had briefly levelled through a Mikel Oyarzabal penalty on 21 minutes, but Madrid went in 3-1 up at half-time and never looked back.

Sociedad’s last league win over Madrid came in May 2023, a 2-0 victory in San Sebastian. Takefusa Kubo and Ander Barrenetxea scored either side of Dani Carvajal’s red card.

Their most famous recent win at the Bernabeu came in the Copa del Rey in February 2020, a wild 4-3 quarterfinal. Martin Odegaard, now Arsenal captain, struck first against his future club, before a brace from Alexander Isak made it 3-0 by the 56th minute. Marcelo pulled one back, Mikel Merino restored the three-goal cushion, and late goals from Rodrygo and Nacho set up a frantic finale. Andoni Gorosabel’s red card only added to the chaos, but Sociedad held on.

In La Liga, their last victory at the Bernabeu was a 2-0 win in January 2019. Willian Jose and Ruben Pardo scored, while Lucas Vazquez saw red for Madrid on 61 minutes.

Strip away the isolated shocks, though, and the trend is brutal. Sociedad have won just one of their last 20 league matches away to Real Madrid. They have scored a respectable 19 goals in that stretch, but conceded 54. Real have taken 16 wins from those 20 games.

Overall, the head-to-head record is just as lopsided: 158 meetings, 91 Madrid wins, 27 for Sociedad.

What the numbers say this time

The Opta supercomputer leans heavily towards the hosts. Real Madrid are given a 66 percent chance of victory. Sociedad’s chances sit at 15 percent, with the remainder going to the draw.

Statistics, though, do not factor in the tension of a manager’s first home game back at a club, or the psychological edge of a reigning cup winner with nothing to lose.

Team news: injuries, doubts and expected lineups

Real Madrid are still far from full strength.

• Eder Militao (muscle)
• Rodrygo (knee)
• Raul Asencio (thigh)
• Ferland Mendy (hip) remain out.
• Endrick (muscle)
• Thiago Pitarch (knee)
• Aurelien Tchouameni (muscle) are doubts and could also miss the game.

Jude Bellingham is expected to feature despite leaving the pitch at Espanyol with an ice pack strapped to his ankle.

Mourinho is likely to go again with a high-profile XI:

Real Madrid predicted lineup
Courtois; Dumfries, Konate, Huijsen, Cucurella; Bernardo, Valverde; Guler, Bellingham, Vinicius; Mbappe.

For Sociedad, there is frustration and familiarity.

Former Real defender Alvaro Odriozola, back at his boyhood club, is sidelined with a long-term knee injury. Pablo Marin (muscle), Jon Gorrotxategi (muscle) and Goncalo Guedes (muscle) all face late fitness tests.

Mikel Oyarzabal, a World Cup winner with Spain, started on the bench against Betis but is expected to lead the line in Madrid.

Real Sociedad predicted lineup
Remiro; Aramburu, Zubeldia, Martin, Gomez; Herrera, Soler; Kubo, Sucic, Barrenetxea; Oyarzabal.

The stage is set: Mourinho’s first Bernabeu night back, a restless fanbase, a champion Sociedad side that knows how to spring a surprise, and a Real Madrid team that cannot afford another season drifting in Barcelona’s shadow.

Does this become the start of a new era of dominance, or the first crack in Mourinho’s second coming?