Real Madrid heads into its delayed meeting with Real Sociedad in Madrid after opening LaLiga with a 2-1 win over Espanyol, a result that kept the club moving and pushed its unbeaten run to 10 matches. Jude Bellingham scored once, Carlos Espí scored the other, and Thibaut Courtois was back in goal after recovering from the injury he suffered in the World Cup quarterfinals against Spain.
The timing is unusual because this is still matchday 1, even though both teams have already played once. Real Madrid beat Espanyol in its league debut, while Real Sociedad opened with a 1-0 loss to Betis, leaving it on a five-match winless run. The fixture was delayed because players who appeared in the World Cup had to be given at least 21 days of rest.
There is a small wrinkle in Madrid's clean run of numbers. The team is unbeaten in 10 matches, nine of them wins and one a draw, but Courtois did not keep a clean sheet against Espanyol. That matters less for the points column than for the feel of the side: Madrid is winning, but it is not shutting teams out with the same certainty every time.
Courtois has already carried Belgium through every match it played until Spain ended that run in the quarterfinals, and he now returns to a league fixture that had to wait for the calendar to clear. Real Sociedad arrives needing a response, and Madrid arrives with momentum and a goalkeeper ready to continue in goal. The unanswered question is not whether the match matters; it is whether Madrid's opening result becomes the start of a clean league march or just another narrow step in a season that is already being played on a delayed schedule.
