Real Sociedad and Racing will face off in a friendly match at Zubieta on Saturday, July 18. The kick-off time is yet to be confirmed. Racing returns to Zubieta, a sports facility with a troubled past, after being severely defeated by Sanse in 2018 and missing out on the promotion playoff in 2ªB. That season, 2017/2018, was a disastrous one, which even saw the departure of Manolo Higuera, who had been in charge of the team along with Juanjo Uriel and Miriam Peña (current members of the Board of Directors). Eight years later, the story is very different. Racing will return to Zubieta as a First Division team to face Real Sociedad's first team, which will be their rival in the next edition of LaLiga EA Sports. Several weeks ago, Chema Aragón and Erik Bretos, their counterpart from the txuri-urdin club, confirmed that they would play a friendly match during the preseason. The chosen date was Saturday, July 18, and the kick-off time is yet to be confirmed. It will be the first friendly match of the preseason for the Cantabrians, who will start their preparation on Monday, August 13, at the Nando Yosu Training Ground in La Albericia due to the improvement works being carried out at the Santi Gutiérrez Calle and Los Campos de Sport in El Sardinero. On the other hand, Real Sociedad, led by Pellegrino Matarazzo, will arrive with more time to spare. The American coach will start training 9 days before Racing. His players are already scheduled to arrive in Zubieta a month from now, on Saturday, July 4. For now, they have not confirmed any other friendly matches, although they have publicly announced that their second summer training session will be open to the public. It's worth remembering that it will be a championship match. Real Sociedad won the Copa del Rey by defeating Atlético de Madrid in the penalty shootout, while Racing achieved the long-awaited promotion to First Division, even winning the LaLiga Hypermotion championship for the third time in their history. Real Sociedad and Racing have faced each other in 108 official matches: 78 in First Division, 20 in Second Division, and 10 in Copa del Rey. In the KO tournament, the historic presentation of Racing against the unpaid board led by Ángel Lavín “Harry” will always be remembered. In general, the balance is 49 wins for Real Sociedad, 35 for Racing, and 29 draws.