Real Sociedad and Manchester United square battle on Thursday night at the Anoeta Stadium with a chance to finish first in Group E of the Europa League and determine who advances to the next round. Imanol Alguacil's team leads the Red Devils by three points, and all they need to do is avoid losing at home to send the visitors to a playoff tie for the elimination stage.Real Sociedad has been playing flawlessly this season in the Europa League, but that cannot be said of their recent La Liga efforts as Alguacil's team looks to bounce back from back-to-back domestic losses in order to secure a last-16 spot in Europe's secondary league. The lone team in the 2022–23 Europe League, Sociedad, has won all five of its group games thus far. The most recent of them was a 2-0 victory against Omonia last week thanks to goals from Robert Navarro and Brais Mendez.

Man United have responded admirably since losing on Mendez's contentious 59th-minute penalty on the first matchday of the Europa League to ensure that they will at the very least be in the running for the knockout phase playoffs after four straight victories.The visit of Sheriff Tiraspol last week, where Cristiano Ronaldo scored the third of his team's three goals on the night after Diogo Dalot and Marcus Rashford had also scored, naturally only one player stole the headlines before his return to the squad.Even if Man United exacts revenge on Sociedad with a one-goal victory, it won't be enough to keep them in first place. In order to advance to the last 16 and prevent one of the teams from being demoted from the Champions League, they must win by at least two goals on Thursday.Man United has also scored in each of their previous 12 away Europa League games since October 2019, and they crushed Real Sociedad 4-0 at the Anoeta Stadium during the 2020–21 Europa League last–32. Repeating that performance on Thursday would guarantee them a first-place finish.

Sociedad only needs to avoid losing to Man United by two goals or more to go to the knockout stages as group winners, but their La Liga form has recently suffered after consecutive defeats to Real Valladolid and Real Betis without a goal.