Barcelona’s bid to reclaim the La Liga title continues on Saturday night when Hansi Flick’s side visit Pamplona to take on Osasuna.
La Blaugrana have bounced back from their disappointing defeat to Monaco in the Champions League with 5-1 and 1-0 victories over Villarreal and Getafe in Spain’s top flight, where they hold a four-point advantage as leaders ahead of Real Madrid.
Osasuna, who have finished in the top ten in two of the previous three La Liga seasons, are undefeated in four home league matches so far in 2024/25 and most recently held Valencia to a goalless draw.
Here’s 90min’s match preview of Barca‘s next test.
Osasuna vs Barcelona H2H Record (Last Five Games)
Current form (all competitions)
How to watch Osasuna vs Barcelona on TV and live stream
Osasuna team news
Osasuna manager Vicente Moreno hasn’t beaten Barca in four previous meetings as a manager, losing three and drawing one across his time at Mallorca and Espanyol.
The 49-year-old has a couple of fitness concerns, with both Jon Moncayola and Kike Barja doubtful to feature on Saturday night. Los Rojillos also remain without Iker Munoz due to a foot fracture.
Bryan Zaragoza, the Spanish winger on loan from Bayern Munich, is looking for his first goal of the season.
Osasuna predicted lineup vs Barcelona
Osasuna predicted lineup vs Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Herrera; Areso, Catena, Boyomo, Cruz; Ibanez, Torro; Garcia, Oroz, Zaragoza; Budimir.
Barcelona team news
Barca’s positive start to the league campaign has been besmirched by the season-ending injury suffered by goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the 5-1 thrashing of Villarreal. His absence means Inaki Pena will get a second league start of the campaign.
On top of Ter Stegen, manager Flick is without Andreas Christensen, Ronald Araujo, Dani Olmo, Fermin Lopez, Gavi and Marc Bernal due to injuries of varying severity. Frenkie de Jong has been sidelined since April but is closing in on a return to competitive action.
Those missing players have opened up a space in the starting XI for Pablo Torre, who should feature in an advanced midfield role ahead of Eric Garcia and Pedri who will sit behind him.
Barcelona predicted lineup vs Osasuna
Barcelona predicted lineup vs Osasuna (4-2-3-1): Pena; Kounde, Cubarsi, Martinez, Balde; E. Garcia, Pedri; Yamal, Torre, Raphinha; Lewandowski.
Barca have started the season in excellent fashion, finding goals easy to come by. They are comfortably the top scorers in La Liga with 23 after only seven games, with 13 strikes coming in away fixtures.
The only blip so far has been the Champions League defeat they suffered with only ten players after Garcia’s red card but the response since has been confident, retaining the small lead they had established over Madrid.
The visitors’ confidence will be high and, although Osasuna have made life difficult for a few opponents so far this season, Barca may well coast to another statement win.
