Match Preview : Barça VS Osasuna- La Liga

It’s only been a couple of days, but Barça are back in action yet again later tonight. This time in La Liga. In yet another huge game in the title race and our season so far. Live from the Estadi Olympic Lluis Companys , its Barça up against Osasuna.

Another one of those tricky games in the league. Osasuna re strong opponents on the best of days, but they’re made to be even tricker to face when you consider how much energy this team burnt through, during the game in midweek. We of course played away against Benfica with 10 men on the pitch for 70 minutes and that took so much out of this team.

Every single one of them ran like dogs on that pitch. The fought and worked so incredibly hard. So although tonight is yet another hugely important game, we need to find the balance between rotating the squad to prevent even more fatigue, but also keeping the team a competitive one. It’s not going to be a simple task, so lets jump straight into the preview!

A Quick Look at our opponents:

Over the last few seasons, Osasuna have cemented themselves as one of the most impressive teams in the league. Reaching domestic cup finals and competing for the European spots in successive seasons. They are a strong team, with talented young players. Most notably Bryan Zaragoza, who always tends to turn up against us. As well as players such as Aimar and key experienced ones like Budimir.

In terms of their season as a whole they comfortably find themselves in the middle of the table. And have a fairly balanced ration between attack and defence. Scoring 32 and conceding 37. So they cant be underestimated. We cant take any games against them for granted. And when you consider how intense the midweek game was for us, that makes tonight’s challenge even more tougher than it would’ve been normally.

Predicted lineup:

For me, this is going to be another huge test for Flick. Not only in terms of the opponent, but especially when it comes to his team selection. He needs to find the perfect balance between the correct rotations but also keeping the starting eleven strong. Straight off the bat id be looking at giving Pedri a full game’s rest. He ran over 13km in midweek and was clearly fatigued at the end of the game. He’s played a lot of football recently and is in desperate need of a rest. Balde would also be someone id look at resting, as well as of course Rapha. He, like Pedri, didn’t stop running against Benfica, scored the winner and played the full 90. But again, we need to protect players like this. Especially at this stage of the season. Yamal had a shorter game on Wednesday so he should be sharp for tonight and Cubarsi will play as he wont be available in midweek, this game could be the chance to see Gavi in a deeper position, alongside Marc Casado. With Olmo in the number 10 position. That, for me, is a really exciting prospect and would still give us the strength in midfield, even with the the magician resting on the bench.