Osasuna vs Valencia - Will Osasuna Finally Grab A Win At El Sadar?

After last Friday’s home draw with Valladolid, Osasuna are up against the wall and they cannot allow any more slip-ups if they want to continue at La Liga next season.

Next Saturday, a relegation-threatened Osasuna will go head-to-head with Valencia at El Sadar for round 34 of Liga BBVA on what will be a vital match for the home side if they want to continue at the Spanish football top flight next season.

Osasuna didn’t manage to get anything better than a draw at last Friday’s home match against Valladolid, a team that is also threatened by the relegation ghost. The Pamplona side had several chances to win the match but Valladolid’s goalkeeper, Jaime, put up a vintage performance and saved his team from an almost certain defeat. At the end of the match, Osasuna’s manager, Javi Gracia, claimed that his side should have won, although he firmly believes that they should remain optimistic about avoiding relegation as the remaining matches of the season approach.

Next Saturday’s clash against Valencia will certainly not be an easy one for the Gorritxoak because of Los Che's high levels of motivation created by the team’s excellent campaign at UEFA Europa League.

For the clash against Valencia, Javi Gracia will probably still not able to count on the Argentinean midfielder Emiliano Armenteros and on Sisi and Lolo, all of them not yet recovered from their recent injuries.

Osasuna’s opponents, Valencia, won the Comunidad Valenciana derby last Sunday against Elche and continued their good moment after their impressive win over FC Basel at UEFA Europa League last week. Juan Antonio Pizzi managed to recover his side’s morale after a less impressive run of games, during which Los Che had only won one match out of seven.

Valencia are comfortably sitting at the 8th place of the table but they cannot allow any major slip-ups if they want to keep Espanyol and Levante at bay.

For next Sunday’s clash, the Hispano-Argentinean head coach will have plenty of headaches to build his team. The Swiss centre back Senderos, who is still recovering from a recent injury, will probably lose the match, while Diego Alves and Victor Ruiz remained sidelined due to long term injuries. The Spanish right back Antonio Barragán will also miss the match due to suspension.

Back in December, when both teams faced each other at Mestalla, Valencia won 3-0 with a splendid hat-trick from the versatile Brazilian forward Jonas. It is not likely that history will repeat itself at El Sadar next Saturday on what will certainly be a very close match that could go either way.

Osasuna

Stats: W-9 L-17 D-7

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Valencia

Stats: W-12 L-13 D-8

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Possible Line-ups

Osasuna (4-2-3-1) - A. Fernández - Bertrán - Flaño - Arribas - Damiá - F. Silva - Loe - Cejudo - De Las Cuevas - R. Torres - O. Riera

Valencia (4-2-3-1) - Guaita - João Pereira - J. Fuego- Rubén Vezo - Bernat - Oriol Romeu - Keita - Vargas - Parejo - Piatti- P. Alcácer

Prediction: Osasuna 1 Valencia 1