Barcelona vs Osasuna prediction: SPAIN: Super Cup betting tips on match 2024-01-10 19:00.
For the third time running, Saudi Arabia has purchased the hosting rights to the annual Spanish Super Cup. This time, the four-team knockout will take place at the 25,000-capacity KSU Stadium in Riyadh, continuing with defending La Liga (LL) champions Barcelona taking on 2022/23 Copa del Rey (CdR) runners-up Osasuna.
Barcelona remain alive in all four tournaments following their hard-earned 3-2 Copa del Rey (CdR) victory away to fourth-tier Barbastro during the week which further illustrated that their season has been well short of impeccable in recent months, underlined by four losses in their last 13 competitive outings (W7, D2). But this tournament remains of great importance to manager Xavi, who ended his lengthy title drought last season when Barça defeated Real Betis (2-2 penalties) and Real Madrid (3-1) to claim their 14th Super Cup title.
Making their inaugural Super Cup appearance after falling 2-1 to Real Madrid in last seasonâs CdR final, Osasuna will face the tough task of having to defeat Barcelona for the first time since 2019/20 (D1, L6 since) to advance to Sunday nightâs final. Added to the difficulty of their opposition and having to travel to West Asia is that the team, albeit with a vastly different starting XI, had to play a full two hours just to get past third-tier CastellĂłn in their own CdR match.
That snapped a five-game winless streak in competitive away matches, and whilst this game is on neutral territory, it points to the recent struggles theyâve been having away from home. That said, there are some triumphs to be inspired by prior to that, as Osasuna have lost just five of nine games away from home as underdogs (W3, D1) this season, including a 2-2 UEFA Europa Conference League draw at Club Brugge as well as league wins at Valencia (2-1) and Celta Vigo (2-0).
Players to watch: Busy Barcelona forward Raphinha has been in âsuperâ form, scoring or assisting in all but one of his last six games in all tournaments. Osasuna striker Ante Budimir has seen each of his last three goals prove decisive to the result, but heâs in the midst of a seven-game scoring drought against Barcelona.
Hot stat: Nine of Barcelonaâs last ten competitive matches saw both teams score.