Our prediction for this Spain Super Cup match:
Barcelona
Match Time & Date:
11/01/2024
02:00 PM
Prediction: 2-1
Osasuna
Barcelona will be aiming to seal their spot in the Spanish Super Cup final when they take on Osasuna at KSU Stadium in Riyadh on Thursday evening. Barca defeated lower-league side Barbastro in the Copa del Rey last 32 and they are seen as favourites to beat los Rojillos as well. Both Robert Lewandowski and Ilkay Gundogan are pushing for a start, while all Joao Cancelo, Pedri, Marcos Alonso, Gavi, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen remain on the sidelines with injuries.
Osasuna, on the other hand, face an uphill task in the Super Cup semi-final as Barca do not suit team. In each of their last four meetings in La Liga the Catalan giants emerged triumphant and given Barcelona’s signs of improvement, we do not believe that the underdogs are capable of putting an end to the negative trend. Defender Johan Mojica should be the only absentee for the away side.
Highlighted Player (Robert Lewandowski):
After scoring 36 goals in 59 league games for Znicz Pruskow, Robert Lewandowski joined Lech Poznan in June, 2008. The 184-cm-tall attacker scored 18 goals in 28 appearances for the club in the 2009/2010 Ekstraklasa campaign and during the season he was on Borussia Dortmund’s radar.
The Polish forward signed a four-year deal with the Bundesliga side in June, 2010 and he quickly established himself as the team’s key attacker. Lewandowski was producing excellent performances with the Millionaires between 2010 and 2014 and it has to be noted that he won two Bundesliga trophies with the club (2010/2011, 2011/2012). He participated in the 2012/2013 Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund, but the Millionaires were beaten by fellow Bundesliga side Bayern Munich in the title game.
However, he betrayed Borussia Dortmund fans in 2014 as he signed a four-year deal with the Bundesliga giants. Lewandowski impressed in the 2016/2017 Bundesliga campaign as he scored 30 goals in 32 league games for Pep Guardiola’s troops. The Polish footballer represented his homeland at Euro 2016 in France and he scored one goal at the showpiece tournament in France.
Highlighted Team (Osasuna):
Osasuna are a Basque football team that plays in Spanish La Liga. Los Rojillos are based in Pamplona and and the club were founded in 1920. Estadio El Sadar has been the home of Osasuna since 1967 and the capacity of the stadium is 19,800.
The colour of Osasuna’s home kit is red, while the team’s shorts are navy blue. Los Rojillos dropped to the Segunda Division at the end of the 2013/2014 La Liga campaign, but they did not spend too many time in the Spanish second tier. The club returned to the elite division in 2016 after beating Girona in the play-offs.
Osasuna made it to the Spanish Copa del Rey final in 2005, but they eventually lost to Real Betis after extra time in the title game. The meaning of the word Osasuna is “health” in Basque and it is used in a sense of strength.
