Osasuna vs Barcelona: Match Preview, Odds & Prediction

Barcelona will travel to El Sadar on Saturday night to face Osasuna in La Liga. They will seek a record-setting eight-game winning streak to begin the campaign.

Osasuna's strong start has put them in seventh place, while the Catalan giants have been faultless in Spain's first flight this season, topping the table with 21 points from seven matches.

Previous Matches and Head-to-head

With 11 points after seven league matches, Osasuna sits in seventh place, one point behind Atletico Madrid in fourth, thanks to three wins, two draws, and two losses.

Vicente Moreno has taken over as manager of Los Rojillos. They won at home against Las Palmas in their previous two games and were drawn 0-0 away to Valencia, accumulating four points.

Against Mallorca, Celta Vigo, and Las Palmas, Osasuna has won all three games played in front of their home fans this season, for ten points out of a possible twelve.

Although they reached the Copa del Rey final in 2022–23 and ended seventh that season, the Pamplona outfit's 11th-place La Liga performance the previous term was somewhat disappointing.

Osasuna has yet to defeat Barcelona in Spain's top division since July 2020. The Catalan club has a five-match losing streak against Osasuna, including a 2-1 loss in last season's meeting.

Despite their injury woes, Barcelona has gotten off to an incredible start this season, and if they win on Saturday, they will tie their best start to a La Liga campaign ever.

The Catalan giants are just two wins shy of the record, which would be quite an accomplishment for new head coach Hansi Flick, given that they won their first eight league matches of the 2013–14 season.

Last weekend, Barcelona bounced back magnificently from a 2-1 loss to Monaco in their Champions League opener on September 19 with a 5-1 thrashing of Villarreal.

Following that, Robert Lewandowski scored the game-winning goal in Wednesday night's 1-0 win over Getafe. Flick's squad has 21 points after seven matches, four more over second-place Real Madrid, who will play Atletico Madrid this weekend.

Even if there is still a tonne of football left to play this season, Barcelona has an excellent opportunity to gain a seven-point advantage over the champions in the table.

After suffering a significant knee injury against Villarreal, Barcelona's starting goalkeeper, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, will miss the remainder of the season. The Catalan club was expected to get Frenkie de Jong back before the October international break.

Osasuna x Barcelona Team News

Osasuna will be missing long-term injured players Kike Barja and Iker Munoz for this weekend's match, but other than that, the home team is in good form.

On Saturday, Ante Budimir might make a comeback to the starting lineup for Osasuna, but every player has scored once for the team this season. The goals have been distributed evenly.

Also, head coach Moreno is expected to make a handful of changes to the starting lineup from their match against Valencia, which might lead to the introduction of Bryan Zaragoza to the squad.

Because of injury concerns, eight Barça players—Ter Stegen, De Jong, Ronald Araujo, Fermin Lopez, Dani Olmo, Andreas Christensen, Gavi, and Marc Bernal—will not be available to start against Getafe and will also not be available here.

Pedri is anticipated to replace Marc Casado in the starting lineup, but the Catalan team did not pick up any additional concerns in their last outing.

The 36-year-old Lewandowski will again be partnered by Lamine Yamal and Raphinha in the final third of the pitch on Saturday, continuing his impressive start to the season in which he has scored seven goals in seven league appearances.

Our Predictions

Barcelona to win @ 1.50 on Sky247.ng

It would not be shocking if Osasuna came out on top here, especially given Barcelona's serious injury woes and their impressive home record this year. Still, we're putting our money on Barcelona to pick up another win to kick off the season.

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