Osasuna vs Barcelona: La Liga Match Preview

Osasuna vs Barça Match Preview | Image: FCB

It will be operation go back to winning ways on Saturday afternoon when Barça travel to Pamplona to be hosted by La Liga returnees CA Osasuna in their 15th league game of the season as they look to get their title hopes back on track with a win after drawing each of their previous three games in La Liga.

After a terrible 1-1 draw at the Anoeta, Barça were unlucky to get held 1-1 by Real Madrid in the next game, both games happened after the club’s 0-0 draw against Málaga. Barcelona made up for these by tearing Borussia Mönchengladbach apart 4-0 in their final Group game of the 2016/2017 Champions League season and will be looking to replicate the form at the Sadar.

TEAM NEWS


Coach Luis Enrique has named his 18-man squad list that will travel to Pamplona and one of the major absentee is Aleix Vidal, the player put up a great display against Borussia Mönchengladbach but didn’t get a place in Luis Enrique’s squad list. Joining Vidal out of the game is goalkeeper Jordi Masip who was also axed for technical reasons. Jeremy Mathieu is alo out through injury while Neymar wil miss the game through suspension.

Neymar will surely be replaced by Arda Turan who netted a hat-trick in midweek.  Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba, Marc André Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto, Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suárez are all set to return to the starting XI after being rested in midweek.

For the hosts, no major injury concerns except from the unavailability of Javier Flaño and Didier Digard who’s both been and will be out for a while. Caparrós has a complete available squad to pick from.

OSASUNA VS BARCELONA

Date: Saturday, 10 December, 2016
Time: 1:00pm CET
Venue: Estadio El Sadar, Pamplona
Referee: Juan Martínez Munuera

PREVIOUS FIVE MEETINGS
Barcelona 7-0 Osasuna
Osasuna 0-0 Barcelona
Barcelona 5-1 Osasuna
Osasuna 1-2 Barcelona
Barcelona 3-2 Osasuna

FORM GUIDE
Osasuna: LWLLLL
Barcelona: DWDDDW

Predicted Osasuna Lineup: Nauzet Pérez; Oier, Miguel Flaño, Ivan Márquez, Carlos Clerc; Roberto Torres, Goran Causic, Imanol Garcia, De las Cuevas; Oriol Riera, Kenan Kodro

Predicted Barcelona Lineup: Marc Andre Ter Stegen; Sergi Roberto, Gerard Piqué, Samuel Umtiti, Jordi Alba; Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Busquets, Andrés Iniesta; Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Arda Turan

BarcaLens Prediction: Barcelona always look to get a good result away against Osasuna but always fight hard for it, last meeting there was 3 years ago and things have changed, expecting Barcelona to get a good win – Osasuna 0-3 Barcelona