Preview: Osasuna vs. Barcelona

Sports Mole previews Saturday’s La Liga clash between Osasuna and Barcelona, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Barcelona will be aiming to make it eight straight wins at the start of a La Liga campaign for just the second time in their history when they head to El Sadar on Saturday night to tackle Osasuna.

The Catalan giants have been perfect in Spain’s top flight this season, securing 21 points from seven matches to top the table, while a solid start for Osasuna has left Los Rojillos in seventh position.

Match preview
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Osasuna have won three, drawn two and lost two of their seven league matches this season to collect 11 points, which has left them in seventh spot in the table, just one point behind fourth-placed Atletico Madrid.

Los Rojillos, who are now under the management of Vicente Moreno, have picked up four points from their last two matches, beating Las Palmas at home last weekend before drawing 0-0 with Valencia on Tuesday.

Osasuna have been excellent at home this season, picking up 10 points from a possible 12, winning each of their last three in front of their own fans against Mallorca, Celta Vigo and Las Palmas.

The Pamplona outfit finished 11th in La Liga last term, which was slightly disappointing considering that they were seventh in 2022-23, in addition to reaching the Copa del Rey final that season.

Osasuna have not beaten Barcelona in Spain’s top flight since July 2020, and they have lost their last five La Liga matches with the Catalan outfit, including a 2-1 defeat in the corresponding game last season.

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Barcelona’s start to the season has been remarkable considering their injury problems, and another victory on Saturday would see them match their best-ever start to a La Liga campaign.

Indeed, the Catalan giants won their opening eight league matches of the 2013-14 season, so they are two victories away from the record, which would be some achievement for new head coach Hansi Flick.

Barcelona suffered a 2-1 defeat to Monaco in their opening match of the Champions League on September 19, but they responded in excellent fashion, thumping Villarreal 5-1 last weekend.

Robert Lewandowski then scored the only goal of the match to hand Flick’s team a 1-0 success over Getafe on Wednesday night, with the result making it 21 points from seven matches, leaving them top of the table, four points clear of second-placed Real Madrid, who face Atletico Madrid this weekend.

There is still an awful lot of football to be played this season, but Barcelona have the chance to open up a seven-point gap over the champions in the table, which would be some lead at this stage of proceedings.

Barcelona are hoping to recover Frenkie de Jong before the October international break, but the club have been hit with the news that number one goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen will miss the rest of the season with the serious knee injury that he suffered against Villarreal.

Osasuna La Liga form:

Barcelona La Liga form:

Barcelona form (all competitions):

Team News
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Osasuna remain without the services of long-term absentees Iker Munoz and Kike Barja, but the home side are otherwise in strong shape heading into this weekend’s contest.

No player has scored more than once for Osasuna this season, with the goals being spread around, but there could be a change in the final third of the field on Saturday, with Ante Budimir potentially returning to the XI.

Bryan Zaragoza is also likely to be introduced into the side, with head coach Moreno expected to make a couple of changes to the team that started against Valencia.

As for Barcelona, eight players were missing against Getafe, and that will again be the case here, with Ter Stegen, De Jong, Ronald Araujo, Fermin Lopez, Dani Olmo, Andreas Christensen, Gavi and Marc Bernal all unavailable for selection due to injury problems.

The Catalan team did not pick up any fresh problems last time out, but there is expected to be a change to the starting side, with Pedri set to replace Marc Casado.

Lewandowski has made a brilliant start to the season, scoring seven times in his opening seven league matches, and the 36-year-old is again set to be joined by Lamine Yamal and Raphinha in the final third of the field on Saturday.

Osasuna possible starting lineup:
Herrera; Areso, Boyomo, Herrando, Bretones; Moncayola, Torro, M Gomez; Zaragoza, Budimir, Oroz

Barcelona possible starting lineup:
Pena; Kounde, Cubarsi, I Martinez, Balde; E Garcia, Pedri; Yamal, Torre, Raphinha; Lewandowski

We say: Osasuna 1-2 Barcelona
Due to Barcelona’s substantial injury problems, it would not be a surprise to see Osasuna claim a point here, especially considering their strong home record this season. That said, we are backing Barcelona to navigate their way to yet another three points at the start of the campaign.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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