No Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcelo, Toni Kroos or Karim Benzema for Real Madrid. Away game against a team who’ve won all four of their games this season —three in La Liga and one in the Europa League—. Real Madrid kicked off their season just a month ago and yet it seems that they will be facing one of those season-defining moments when they visit Real Sociedad this night —20:45 CET—. Win the match and you clearly make a statement. Drop points again and the team’s depth will be put into question, and rightfully so.

Coach Zinedine Zidane will most likely still keep Dani Ceballos on the bench while starting Casemiro, Kroos, Isco and Vazquez in the midfield with Asensio and Bale upfront. This is the perfect game for Bale to send a message and prove his critics wrong. He simply has to lead this Real Madrid team to a win tonight and another lethargic performance could be too much and send him to the bench once every players is healthy and ready to go.

MATCH INFO

Date: 09/17/2017

Time: 20:45 CET, 02:45pm EST, 11:45 am Pacific.

Venue: Anoeta, San Sebastian, Spain.

HOW TO WATCH, STREAM LA LIGA

Available TV: BeIN Sports (USA), Sky Sports Football (UK), Canal+ Partidazo (Spain).

Available Streaming: BeIN Sports (USA), Fubo.TV (EVERY Real Madrid game with a high-quality and legal stream, click here to sign up and benefit from a summer discount for new members and Managing Madrid readers).

LINEUPS

Real Madrid (confirmed lineup, 4-4-2 formation): Navas; Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Hernandez; Casemiro, Isco, Modric; Asensio, Bale, Mayoral.

Real Sociedad (predicted lineup, 4-2-3-1 lineup): Rulli, Odriozola, Navas, Elustondo, Rodrigues, Prieto, Illarramendi, Zurutuza, Januzaj, Juanmi, Jose.