La Liga Preview: Osasuna Undefeated at Home, Lewandowski Firing on All Cylinders as Barcelona Aim for Perfect Start

On the night of September 26th at 3 AM, Barcelona will face Osasuna away in the 8th round of La Liga, aiming to secure an eighth consecutive win at the start of the league season.

As a powerhouse of La Liga, Barcelona has delivered a perfect performance this season, winning all seven rounds and accumulating 21 points, firmly sitting at the top of the leaderboard. However, Osasuna’s performance is also commendable, with three wins, two draws, and two losses, accumulating 11 points and ranking seventh, just three points behind fourth-placed Mallorca.

Under the leadership of coach Vincente Moreno, Osasuna has earned four points in the last two rounds, defeating Las Palmas at home last week and drawing 0-0 against Valencia in midweek.

This season, Osasuna’s performance at home has been particularly outstanding, winning three and drawing one out of four home games, taking ten points. In the last three home games, they have defeated Mallorca, Celta Vigo, and Las Palmas.

Looking back, Osasuna ranked 7th in the 2022-23 season and reached the Copa del Rey final, but finished only 11th last season, slightly disappointing. Since July 2020, Osasuna has not beaten Barcelona in La Liga, losing all five recent encounters, including 1-2 defeats both home and away last season. Additionally, they lost 0-2 to Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup. Osasuna has only managed one draw and eight losses in their last nine matches against Barcelona, with their last victory coming in July 2020.

Despite being hampered by injuries, Barcelona’s season start has been impressive. If they can win on Saturday, they will equal their record of the best start in La Liga history – winning all eight rounds – which they set in the 2013-14 season. For new coach Flick, this would be an extraordinary achievement.

Barcelona lost 1-2 to Monaco in the Champions League group stage on September 19th, but quickly bounced back, defeating Villarreal 5-1 last weekend. Then, on Wednesday night, they secured a 1-0 victory over Getafe with a goal from Lewandowski, consolidating their top position, leading second-placed Real Madrid by four points. The latter will face Atletico Madrid in this round.

Barcelona hope that midfielder Frankie de Jong will return before the international break in October, but unfortunately, starting goalkeeper Ter Stegen will miss the entire season due to a severe knee injury sustained during the match against Villarreal.

On the Osasuna side, long-term absentees Iker Munoz and Kike Barja are still unavailable, but the team’s overall condition is good. No player has scored more than one goal this season, indicating a balanced scoring effort. Changes are expected in the forward line on Saturday, with Ante Budimir likely to return to the starting lineup and Bryan Saragosa also expected to feature, as Coach Moreno may make some adjustments to the starting lineup from the previous match against Valencia.

In the match against Getafe, Barcelona had eight players sidelined due to injuries, and the same situation is expected to continue into this round. Ter Stegen, De Jong, Araujo, Fermin Lopez, Dani Olmo, Andreas Christensen, Gavi, and Marc Bernat are all unable to play.

Lewandowski has been outstanding at the start of the season, scoring seven goals in the first seven rounds. On Saturday, he will continue to form the front three with Yamal and Rafinha.

Osasuna has performed well at home this season and hopes to at least draw with Barcelona. However, given Barcelona’s strong performance at the start of the season and their historical advantage in head-to-head encounters, getting even a point from Barcelona will be very difficult.

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