The 2022/23 Spanish La Liga season begins on the 12th of August with a meeting between Osasuna and Sevilla at Estadio El Sadar. The hosts finished in 10th place last season and will be aiming for something similar this term while Sevilla finished in 4th place and will be hoping to maintain their position as a top four club.
Osasuna played 7 friendly matches during preseason and won their final 3 games. The victories came over Feyenoord and Mirandes away plus Burgos at home. Going back to last season and Osasuna struggled to win matches towards the end of the season. They failed to win any of their final 6 La Liga fixtures.
😁 ⚪️🔴 pic.twitter.com/xq7RwyVOVC— Sevilla Fútbol Club (@SevillaFC) August 9, 2022
😁 ⚪️🔴 pic.twitter.com/xq7RwyVOVC
There were defeats at home to Real Madrid and Real Mallorca plus away to Athletic Bilbao. Osasuna were held to draws by Elche and Espanyol away plus Getafe at home.
If Osasuna had managed to pick up a couple of victories from those games, they could easily have finished above Valencia in the table.
Trends show Osasuna's most recent games have been low-scoring, with under 2.5 goals scored in their last 5 matches in La Liga.
There have been under 2.5 goals scored in 3 of their last 4 home league games and there have been only 4 victories in their 14 most recent home La Liga fixtures, which is a poor record.
Sevilla travel to the Estadio El Sadar having recorded a 1-0 win over Cadiz in their final friendly game. It was important to end the preseason on a high following two defeats, one of which was a hugely disappointing 6-0 loss at the hands of Arsenal. The other game ended in a 1-0 defeat against Leicester City.
Sevilla ended last season on a 6 match unbeaten run. However, there were only 2 wins in those 6 matches and they came against Levante away and Athletic Bilbao at home, the latter of which was on the final day of the season.
There were 4 draws between those 2 wins, with Sevilla being held at home by Cadiz and Real Mallorca and away against Villarreal and Atletico Madrid. Just one victory from any of those games would have seen Sevilla finish third last season.
Trends show Sevilla are undefeated against Osasuna in 10 consecutive matches in the league.
Team news and Osasuna are without the injured trio of Kike Saverio, Aitor Fernandez, and Ante Budimir. Moi Gómez has joined from Atletico Madrid and could make his league debut for Osasuna.
Sevilla have no injury or suspension concerns ahead of this game. Marcão is expected to make his league debut in defence while loan signings Alex Telles and Isco could also feature.
Sevilla have lost a couple of key defenders over the summer and it will be interesting to see how they cope without them.
This match, against a team they have a good record against should give Sevilla a winning start to the campaign and we expect to see under 2.5 goals scored.