The team that broke the duopoly: how Real Sociedad jumped Real Madrid in the only stretch of La Liga history that wasn't theirs
On 26 April 1981, with Real Madrid already winning 3-1 at Valladolid, Jesús María Zamora drove into the Sporting Gijón box at El Molinón and lashed a left-footed finish past Castro in the 90th minute. The 2-2 draw was enough: Real Sociedad finished level with Madrid on 45 points, took the title on head-to-head, then retained it the next year. The 1980-82 back-to-back, won by Alberto Ormaetxea's all-Basque squad built around Luis Arconada, Periko Alonso and Roberto López Ufarte, is the only consecutive Liga double of the modern era won by neither Madrid, Barça nor Atlético. Forty-four years on, La Real meet Madrid as a perennial top-six club under Imanol Alguacil — with a 2020 Copa, a 2023-24 Champions League last-16 run, and a fixture record that has gone almost entirely Madrid's way.
| Date | Competition | Venue | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 14, 2026 | La Liga | REA | REA 4–1 RSO |
| Sep 13, 2025 | La Liga | RSO | RSO 1–2 REA |
| May 24, 2025 | La Liga | REA | REA 2–0 RSO |
| Sep 14, 2024 | La Liga | RSO | RSO 0–2 REA |
| May 2, 2023 | La Liga | RSO | RSO 2–0 REA |
| Jan 29, 2023 | La Liga | REA | REA 0–0 RSO |
| Mar 5, 2022 | La Liga | REA | REA 4–1 RSO |

