Osasuna vs Valencia

Estadio El Sadar forms the backdrop for a ‘make or break’ La Liga contest between European hopefuls Osasuna and Valencia.

Osasuna brought their Europa Conference League pursuit back on track with a thumping 3-0 win against Almeria last time out, reducing the gap on seventh-placed Valencia to five points. After putting an end to a two-game losing La Liga run, Jagoba Arrasate’s side can win back-to-back league games for only the second time in 2024. With three of their four top-flight losses this calendar year coming against the top-three sides, you wouldn’t put it past them to achieve this feat. However, Osasuna can’t take anything for granted after losing their last two home league meetings with Valencia ‘to one’ after going unbeaten in four previous H2Hs at El Sadar (W2, D2).

Meanwhile, Valencia eked out a narrow 1-0 win against second-from-bottom Granada on their most recent La Liga travel, halting a woeful run of three consecutive league defeats on the road. With all those four matches seeing the winner on the day keep a clean sheet in games featuring under 2.5 total goals, it’s only reasonable to expect a low-scoring theme. Adding to this sentiment, the six previous H2Hs between Osasuna boss Arrasate and Valencia’s Ruben Baraja have only produced seven goals. The importance of the opening goal is significant, not least because Los Che haven’t won any of their nine away league outings when conceding first this season (D2, L7).