Osasuna vs Villarreal

El Sadar is the venue as Osasuna and Villarreal go head-to-head in their last encounter of the 2023/24 La Liga season. 

There’s not much Osasuna can hope for in this season finale, except for a top-half finish, perhaps, as they trail 10th-placed Deportivo Alaves by a point at the start of the closing round. Jagoba Arrasate’s men have followed up a dismal four-game losing run with three unbeaten matches (W1, D2), with a stunning 4-1 victory at Atletico Madrid last weekend extending their seasonal tally to 44 points. That’s Osasuna’s worst record across four completed campaigns since returning to the top flight. Considering their disappointing 23% win ratio in La Liga fixtures they started as underdogs this season (W6, D4, L16), that’s unlikely to improve against Villarreal, not least because they’ve lost their last three league H2Hs via multiple-goal margins.

On the other hand, Villarreal pulled off a superb comeback to hold Real Madrid to a 4-4 home draw last time out, hauling back a 4-1 deficit to extend their unbeaten league run to three games (W2, D1). However, it was all for nothing as they will miss out on European football after falling four points behind seventh-placed Real Betis. Villarreal will finish eighth no matter what happens in Pamplona, having accrued just 52 points – their lowest tally ahead of the final round across the last nine seasons. El Submarino Amarillo will travel confidently as manager Marcelino Garcia Toral boasts a telling H2H record against Osasuna (W8, D3, L2). Not just that, the visitors have gone unbeaten in six of their last seven outings (W4, D2) despite only keeping two clean sheets in that sequence.