Osasuna vs Real Mallorca Preview & Prediction | 2024-25 Spanish Primera
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Last weekend, we had Garcia Pimienta returning to the Canary Islands to face Las Palmas with his Sevilla side and now Jago Arrasate’s first trip away from the Balearic Islands with Real Mallorca is back to El Sadar to face Osasuna.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Saturday 24th August, 2024 - UK – 4:00pm / US ET – 11:00am / US PT – 8:00am
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – Premier Sports / US – ESPN have the exclusive rights to La Liga games in the USA, so Osasuna vs Real Mallorca may be televised on one of their affiliated channels
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – Premier Sports / US – ESPN+
OSASUNA PREVIEW: CONCERNS FOR OSASUNA
Following the departure of the aforementioned Jago Arrasate, who had led Osasuna to the Copa del Rey final as well as a seventh placed finish and UEFA Europa Conference League qualification in the 2022/23 season, Osasuna have a few concerns for this season under the management of Vicente Moreno, who struggled at Almeria last season.
The Pamplona-based outfit welcomed newly-promoted Leganes to El Sadar last weekend and were fortunate to take a point from the game. Juan Cruz opened the scoring for Lega after 22 minutes before Juan Soriano scored an own goal in the 79th minute to rescue some sort of result for Osasuna.
REAL MALLORCA PREVIEW: ENCOURAGEMENT FOR MALLORCA
Now coached by Jago Arrasate, there will be an expectation to play a more progressive style of football in Palma de Mallorca following the fairly stubborn, defensive and pragmatic stylings of new Mexico boss Javier Aguirre. The opening day perhaps wasn’t the best time to do that as they faced the ‘galacticos 2.0’ of Real Madrid.
Mallorca fell behind early on to star-studded Madrid after just 13 minutes when Rodrygo, perhaps the lesser mentioned of their front four, opened the scoring. However, Kosovo international striker Vedat Muriqi notched an equaliser in the 53rd minute before Ferland Mendy was then sent off deep into second-half stoppage-time.
OSASUNA TEAM NEWS: LACK OF ATTACKING THREAT
With Vicente Moreno still finding his feet in Pamplona, Osasuna do lack a cutting edge in attack and that is not helped by the continued absence of forward Kike Barja for the foreseeable future.
They were able to field a front three of Ante Budimir, Aimar Oroz and Ruben Garcia but Osasuna are trying to tweak to a 4-3-3 system with teething issues expected to continue.
PREDICTED XI (4-3-3): Sergio Herrera; Jesus Areso, Alejandro Catena, Jorge Herrando, Abel Bretones; Iker Munoz, Lucas Torro, Moi Gomez; Ruben Garcia, Budimir, Aimar Oroz
UNAVAILABLE: Kike Barja (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
REAL MALLORCA TEAM NEWS: FULLY FIT MALLORCA
Throughout Javier Aguirre’s reign in Majorca, Mallorca played with a back three that was more a back five but Jago Arrasate switched to a 4-3-3 system – even with Real Madrid as their opponents.
Mallorca do have some exciting attacking options and there is the potential that Dani Rodriguez moves into a midfield role in order to get Abdon or Antonio Sanchez into the starting eleven on the wing.
PREDICTED XI (4-3-3): Greif; Pablo Maffeo, Valjent, Antonio Raillo, Johan Mojica; Sergi Darder, Omar Mascarell, Samu Costa; Asano, Muriqi, Dani Rodriguez
UNAVAILABLE:
QUESTIONABLE:
OSASUNA VS REAL MALLORCA PREDICTION
Osasuna will be looking to avoid the shakiness that they showed on the opening day of the season but Vicente Moreno’s recent track record is not a great sign as they now welcome their former manager back to the Navarre. Mallorca showed really positive signs of continuing to be difficult to beat but also slightly more progressive in attack and the good bet for this one is surely to side with the visitors.
OSASUNA VS REAL MALLORCA TIP: DOUBLE CHANCE – REAL MALLORCA TO WIN OR DRAW
