One of last season’s success stories in La Liga was the form of Antoine Griezmann. The 23-year-old French attacking midfielder scored 20 goals in 49 appearances in all competitions for Real Sociedad, enough to catch the eye of Didier Deschamps and gain a call up to the France World Cup squad. Griezmann replaced the injured Franck Ribery on the left side of the attack and featured in all five of his country’s games in Brazil.
Griezmann’s form for La Real last season also piqued the interest of Diego Simeone, enough for Atletico Madrid to pay €30m for the his services and providing the San Sebastian club with their highest ever transfer fee. Griezmann duly made his Atleti debut on Tuesday night as a second-half substitute for Saul Niguez in the Supercopa first-leg against Real Madrid
Griezmann delivered 16 Primera goals last term for Jagoba Arrasate’s side, a more than acceptable haul for a midfielder that was augmented by Carlos Vela and Imanol Agirretxe, with 15 and 13 respectively. The Coach will again look to the latter pair for goals, but great things are also expected of new signing Alfred Finnbogason. The Icelandic striker fired an incredible 53 goals in just 65 games in two seasons for Heerenveen in the Netherlands, but will find Primera defences a tough nut to crack.
Supporters of La Real will also be lamenting the departure to Barcelona of long-serving goalkeeper Claudio Bravo following his eye-catching performances for Chile in Brazil. Bravo played 229 times for La Real in an eight-year career at Anoeta and his relatively low profile replacement – Argentine Geronimo Rulli on loan from Uruguayan second-tier side Deportivo Maldonado – will be under the spotlight.
La Real finished seventh in La Liga and reached the semi-final of the Copa del Rey last season, yet their disastrously brief Champions League campaign exposed their shortcomings and left an overwhelming sense of disappointment. A group containing Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk and Bayer Leverkusen was never going to be easy, but to crash out with just a single point – from a home goalless draw against United – was a major anti-climax.
Arrasate’s men take on Krasnodar tonight in the first leg of their Europa League play-off tie. The Russian Premier League outfit have scored 17 goals in reaching this stage, albeit against relatively weak Estonian and Hungarian opponents. For their part, La Real put out Scottish Premier League side Aberdeen 5-2 on aggregate, with all their goals coming from midfield, experienced captain Xabi Prieto grabbing two of them in a 3-2 second-leg away win.
A convincing win for the Basques will minimise the uncertainty of a potentially tricky visit to southern Russia in the second leg and instil optimism for the long season ahead, beginning with Sunday’s potential banana skin against newly-promoted neighbours Eibar. With the minnows making their Primera debut and on a hiding to nothing, only a thoroughly professional start will do for La Real.
