Prediction: Osasuna vs Atletico Madrid

Verdict: Away win

Best odds: 23/20

Bookmaker: Betfair

Osasuna and Atletico Madrid are set to do battle on Sunday at the El Sadar stadium, in a game that will be a part of round 19 in La Liga this season. It will obviously be an important clash between two teams currently involved in the same races when it comes to table placement in the Spanish top flight.

Osasuna

Jagoba Arrasate’s team head into the weekend on the back of a big boost – a win over Sevilla on Thursday which has put them through to the semifinals of the Copa del Rey. This particular piece of success wasn’t quite as surprising as it would’ve been in some of the previous seasons, with Osasuna enjoying a very good campaign so far.

Osasuna are currently in seventh place with 28 points, just three away from the top four, and a win here could see them enter that bracket and possibly set their sights on unlikely Champions League qualification.

Their last-six run includes three cup matches and three played in the league, and the results have been interesting. They didn’t lose a single match.

Osasuna beat Gimnastic 1-2 away in the Copa round of 32, played a goalless draw against Athletic in Bilbao, beat Mallorca 1-0 at home, triumphed on penalties after drawing 2-2 against Real Betis in the cup round of 16, drew 1-1 away to Elche, and beat Sevilla 2-1 at home.

The visitors were happy for the clash to go into extra-time as Youssef En-Nesyri bagged a very late equalizer, cancelling out Ezequiel Avila’s opener for Osasuna, but nine minutes into the first extra period, Abde Ezzalzouli scored what proved to have been the winning goal with no need for a penalty shootout to happen again.

Team News

There is probably need for Arrasate and his staff to make a few assessments over the state of his squad after the victory over Sevilla, but right-backs Nacho Vidal (hamstring) and Ruben Pena (torn muscle fibre) will not be involved.

With both of them out, Diego Moreno will likely complete the back four by playing on the right, with Juan Cruz on the left and the duo of Aridane Hernandez and David Garcia as the centre-backs. In midfield, Jon Moncayola will likely be the anchor, with Lucas Torro and Moi Gomez there as well. Kike Barja and Chimy Avila should be attacking from the flanks, with Ante Budimir possibly replacing Kike Garcia upfront.

Atletico Madrid

Atletico are still standing better than Osasuna when it comes to the league table, being actually in fourth place with 31 points, the same tally as Villarreal in fifth, but with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Real Sociedad far away on 44, 41 and 38, respectively, it is their position that will be targeted by the teams below – Villarreal, Betis AND Osasuna – in terms of the top-four race.

There have been numerous problems when it comes to Atletico Madrid, and many believe this season might be last with Diego Simeone in charge of the team. One of them has been the obvious fallout between the Argentinian tactician and Joao Felix, with the Portuguese attacker heading to Chelsea on loan for the rest of the season as a result. Atletico determinedly refused to allow any option to buy to be included in the deal, reportedly maintaining the stance that Felix still has a future at the club. It obviously poses the question whether Simeone will still be there when he comes back.

Since the start of the year, Atletico beat Oviedo away by 0-2 in the Copa round of 32, lost 0-1 at home to Barcelona, drew 1-1 away to Almeria, beat Levante away by 0-2 in the Copa round of 16, smashed Valladolid 3-0 at home, and lost the Copa quarterfinal to Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu by 3-1. They had a player sent off in three of those six matches.

Team News

Midfielder Marcos Llorente (muscle), defender Jose Maria Gimenez (unspecified injury) and Yannick Carrasco (muscle) are the players Simeone won’t be able to count on.

With Jan Oblak in goal, Stefan Savic is expected to play alongside Mario Hermoso and Reinildo in a back line of three. Geoffrey Kondogbia could join Koke and Pablo Barrios in the middle of the park, with Thomas Lemar and Nahuel Molina covering the whole length of the pitch out wide. Antoine Griezmann and Alvaro Morata will probably pair up in attack.

Conclusion

Atletico will seek to bounce back after the Copa defeat to Real Madrid, as well as to put some distance between them and Osasuna in the table rankings. This is the perfect opportunity to do so.

Verdict: Away win

Best odds: 23/20

Bookmaker: Betfair