Osasuna vs Leganes

El Sadar is the venue as Osasuna and Leganes square off in their opening 2024/25 La Liga meeting.

Osasuna powerbrokers couldn’t reconcile with a dismal 11th-place finish in 2023/24 – the club’s joint-worst since suffering relegation from La Liga in 2016/17 – resulting in the sacking of long-serving manager Jagoba Arrasate. Arrasate’s heir, Vicente Moreno, oversaw the departure of defensive stalwart David Garcia and the arrival of Bryan Zaragoza on loan from Bayern Munich over the summer. The upcoming visit of Leganes bodes well for Moreno’s hopes of getting his managerial tenure off to a winning start, with Osasuna going unbeaten in six home encounters against newly-promoted clubs (W5, D1). Interestingly, starting with a narrow 1-0 win at Leganes in August 2019, Los Rojillos haven’t lost an opening-day clash in La Liga in any of the last five seasons (W4, D1), highlighting the potential for a winning start.

On the other hand, visiting Leganes are back in La Liga after four years away, having won the title in the Segunda Division last season, largely thanks to a superb run of just one loss in 13 encounters at the tail-end of the season (W6, D6). On top of that, Leganes boasted the best away record in the Spanish second-tier competition last term (W9, D6, L6), while further confidence stems from securing several exciting first-team additions in the transfer window. Manager Borja Jimenez must make the mix of long-serving stalwarts and newcomers hit the ground running if the visitors are to end a dreadful run of losing an opening-day clash across the last three seasons.