Barcelona vs Osasuna Preview

Current Spanish Super Cup holders Barcelona will look to begin their defence of the title with a win this Thursday when they face Osasuna at the KSU Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Barca won this competition last year in this nation by beating Real Madrid in the final. This year, they are competing against Carlo Ancelotti’s men, Atlético Madrid and 2022/23 Copa del Rey runners-up Osasuna, with this game being the first.

Although the Catalan side make this trip to Riyadh in patchy form, they ensured they remained alive in all four tournaments before this trip following their hard-earned 3-2 Copa del Rey victory away to fourth-tier Barbastro during the week.

That result further illustrated that their season has been short of impeccable in recent months, underlined by four losses in their last 13 competitive outings (W7, D2).  Despite their form in Europe and domestically, this tournament remains of great importance to manager Xavi, who ended his lengthy title drought last season when his side beat Real Betis and Real Madrid to claim their 14th Super Cup title.

Meanwhile, unlike Barca, Osasuna are playing in this tournament for the first time this year. They qualified for this tournament courtesy of their run to the final of the Copa del Rey last season where they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid.

They will face the tough task of having to defeat Barcelona for the first time since 2019/20 (D1, L6) to advance to Sunday night’s final. Added to the difficulty of their opposition and having to travel to West Asia is that the team had to play a full two hours just to get past third-tier Castellón in their own Copa del Rey match.

That result snapped a five-game winless run in competitive away matches. And although this game is on neutral territory, their recent away record points to their struggles away from home.