Barcelona-Osasuna is a semifinal of the 2024 Spanish Super Cup and is played Thursday at 8 p.m.: TV, streaming, predictions and likely lineups.
The Spanish Super Cup has changed format for a few years now, involving four teams instead of two. Previously, the winner of La Liga and the winner of the King’s Cup faced each other directly; in the new formula, instead, a sort of Final Four is staged, in which the runner-up in the last league and the finalist of the national cup also participate. A model that seems to have met with some success, considering that as of this year the Italian Super Cup has also adopted this format.
Reigning Spanish champions Barcelona will make their debut in Riyadh against Osasuna, who disputed Real Madrid for the Copa del Rey in May, surrendering to the Blancos in the very final in Seville (2-1). The two teams will take the field already knowing the name of the other finalist, one between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, on the pitch twenty-four hours earlier and again in the capital of Saudi Arabia, which like last year hosts the event. Xavi’s men, who in the last edition prevailed by beating Real’s arch-rivals in the final, start as logical favorites. For the blaugrana, however, it is not a very happy period: in La Liga due to too many missteps (12 wins but also 5 draws and two defeats) they have lost contact from the top and are -7 from the odd couple formed by Real Madrid and Girona.
Barça continues to be unconvincing
In the last two outings, Barcelona has continued not to convince, despite winning: against Las Palmas, in the league, the three points came only in full recovery thanks to a penalty kick converted by Gundogan (1-2).
Not all went smoothly even in the King’s Cup challenge with a lower-ranked opponent, Barbastro, folded 3-2 last Sunday before taking the plane to Riyadh. Osasuna, on the other hand, is 12th, not even too far from Europe and still in line with what its goals are. Jagoba Arrasate’s team, which exited in the Conference League preliminaries last summer, wants to try again: since December it has lost only one game, the one with Mallorca, while at home it got the better of both Rayo Vallecano and Almeria, also beating Castellon in the King’s Cup. In the Super Cup, however, Arrasate will have to do without one of its best players, “Chimy” Avila.
The prediction
Very hard-fought the only previous match of the season, played last September: the Blaugrana came out on top only in the final thanks to a penalty kick by Lewandowski, with the Navarri left with ten men due to the expulsion of Catena (1-2). The feeling is that Osasuna can again put the much better-rated Xavi’s team in trouble, in any case favored for passage to the round. The number of total goals will be between 2 and 4.
Barcelona-Osasuna
probable lineups.
BARCELONA (4-3-3): Inaki Pena; Koundé, Araujo, Christensen, Baldé; Pedri, de Jong, Gundogan; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Ferran Torres.
OSASUNA (4-3-3): Herrera; Areso, D. Garcia, Catena, Pena; Moncayola, Torro, Oroz; R. Garcia, Budimir, Gomez.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1
