Barcelona vs Osasuna 17/07/20

17 July 2020

Winners in three consecutive La Liga outings, Barcelona welcome Osasuna to the Camp Nou, looking to stretch an unbeaten run in top-flight H2Hs to eight games (W5, D2). 

Six of Barcelona’s last seven La Liga matches have ended separating the sides by under 1.5 goals (W4, D3), with three of those victories coming via the identical 1-0 scoreline. Additionally, the reigning title-holders boast an almost perfect league record at home this calendar year (W8, D1), with six of those triumphs yielding a clean sheet. By extension, the Catalan giants have been by far the most intimidating home side in Spain’s top-flight this season, winning all but two of their 18 La Liga home fixtures (D2). Although just over a half (56.25%) of their 16 league home wins this term produced a winning margin of two goals or more, Quique Setien’s men have bagged a league-high average of 2.83 goals per La Liga home game.

Meanwhile, Osasuna’s indifferent La Liga form post restart (W4, D2, L3) provides the visitors with a glimmer of hope that they can snap a six-game losing league run at the Camp Nou. Notably, four of those defeats have seen a full-time margin of at least two goals and Los Rojillos draw a blank, which has been true in four of their last five La Liga failures. The ‘clean-sheet’ theme remains quite significant, given that five of Osasuna’s seven league away results during this calendar year have witnessed the winner on the day shut out the losing side (W3, L4). But, a genuine lack of first-half goals could be a major influence here. Jagoba Arrasate’s players have netted a league second-low three first-half goals away from home this campaign.