Overview
Osasuna are having a good run of form in the early stages of the 2024-2025 season. After 7 rounds, they have 11 points and are currently ranked 7th on the table. In their last 2 matches, Osasuna won against Las Palmas and drew away at Valencia.
However, hosting Barcelona in round 8 of La Liga will be an extremely difficult challenge for Osasuna. Coach Hansi Flick's team is in extremely good form in La Liga, with a maximum of 21 points after 7 matches and scoring 23 goals. Barcelona's only blemish so far is the 1-2 defeat to AS Monaco in the opening match of the Champions League. This is a match in which they lost a man early on due to Eric Garcia's red card.
Bad news for Blaugrana as number 1 goalkeeper Ter Stegen has just suffered a serious injury and will have to take a long-term break. Barca's upcoming schedule will be extremely tight, forcing Flick to make reasonable calculations about personnel.
Barcelona are on fire in attack with the trio of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal. They are the team with the most goals in the tournament with 23 goals. Lewandowski leads the list of top scorers with 7 goals.
Overall, beating Osasuna at this point is not too difficult a task for Barcelona. However, this will hardly be a big win like they did against Villarreal, Girona or Valladolid.
In the last 6 away matches at Osasuna's field, Barcelona won and scored at least 2 goals/match.
Human resources situation
Home team Osasuna has 3 absentees due to injury, including Moncayola, Iker Munoz and Kike Barja.
Barcelona will be without Araujo, Christensen, De Jong, Gavi, Fermin and Olmo. As mentioned above, the latest name to join the visitors' injury list is goalkeeper Ter Stegen. The German international is out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
Expected lineup:
Osasuna: Herrera, Bretones, Boyomo, Catena, Areso, Torro, Zaragoza, Oroz, Ibanez, Garcia, Budimir.
Barcelona: Pena, Kounde, Cubarsi, Martinez, Balde, Casado, Pedri, Raphinha, Torre, Yamal, Lewandowski.
The match between Osasuna and Barcelona takes place at 2:00 a.m. on September 29 (Vietnam time).
