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| PROBABLE LINEUPS |
REAL MADRID  Casillas Arbeloa, Pepe, Varane, Marcelo Khedira, AlonsoCallejon, Kaka, Ronaldo Benzema | REAL SOCIEDAD  Bravo Cadamuro, Gonzalez, I. Martinez, De la Bella Illarramendi, AranburuPrieto, Zurutuza, Griezmann Vela |
Sergio Ramos and Mesut Ozil are suspended for Real Madrid's Primera Division encounter with Real Sociedad at the Bernabeu on Saturday.
The duo were dismissed in the ill-tempered 1-1 draw at Villarreal along with boss Jose Mourinho, who serves a touchline ban.
With Ricardo Carvalho struggling to recover from a thigh problem, Raphael Varane looks set to start in central defence in place of Ramos.
Fabio Coentrao is likely to be involved after being omitted for "technical reasons" against Villarreal, while Angel Di Maria (thigh) is still sidelined.
Carlos Martinez and Markel Bergara are out injured for Real Sociedad, who look to recover from Wednesday's 3-1 home defeat to Levante.
Gorka Elustondo misses out after his red card against Levante, as does Dani Estrada, who received his fifth yellow card of the season in the same match.
| DID YOU KNOW? |
- Real Madrid's 1-1 draw at Villarreal was the first time they had dropped points away from home since a goalless stalemate at Racing Santander in September.
- The Castilian side have won their last six encounters against Real Sociedad.
- Karim Benzema (pictured right) has scored 60 goals in all competitions since joining Madrid, nine more than the club's next highest French-born goalscorer, Zinedine Zidane.
- Real Sociedad have lost six of their last ten matches in La Liga.
- The Basque outfit are on a four-game losing streak away from home.
- Sociedad's last victory at the Santiago Bernabeu came in May 2004.
Back-to-back 1-1 draws for Madrid has blown the Liga title race wide open and Barcelona will be smelling blood after seeing the way Mourinho's side lost their composure at Villarreal. Los Blancos have looked a little heavy-legged in recent weeks, but they should put Sociedad to the sword to preserve what is still a sizable lead over their arch-rivals.
Editor's Prediction
Real Madrid 2-0 Real Sociedad 
