The lowdown on CA Osasuna

FC Barcelona return to league action on Sunday with a trip to Pamplona to take on Club Atlético Osasuna, to give them their full title. Before the 4.15pm CET kick off in the El Sadar stadium, we take a closer look at the opposition. 

Where are they from?

Osasuna are from Pamplona, the largest city and capital of the region of Navarra. Known as Iruñea in the Basque language, the city of 209,000 people is best known internationally for the San Fermín festival in July, which features the famous ‘running of the bulls’.

History

The club was founded in 1920 out of a merger between two older clubs and its name means something like ‘health’ / ‘strength’ in the Basque language. Other than a brief period in the 1950s, when they finished as high as fifth in La Liga, they had spent most of their years in the lower divisions until returning to the top flight in 1980

Since then they have been a more or less regular fixture in the first division, usually finishing mid-table but occasionally making it into the UEFA Cup/Europe League, their best run coming in 2006/07 when they went all the way to the semi-finals.

And in 2005 they reached their only major final, the Copa del Rey, losing in extra time to Real Betis.

The stadium

Estadio El Sadar, known as the Reyno de Navarra from 2005 to 2011 holds 23,576 people and was built in 1967.

It takes its name from a river that passes close to the ground.

Head to head

Barça had some extraordinary wins against Osasuna in recent times, including 8-0, 7-0 and 7-1 victories in the last decade. All of those have happened at Camp Nou, but they have also been typically strong at El Sadar, losing just the once in their last eleven visits, 3-2 under Pep Guardiola in 2011.

Another major mishap came in 2020, when Osasuna won 2-1 at Camp Nou, a result that mathematically ended Barça’s already fading chances of winning the league trophy.

Last season, Barça won 4-0 at Camp Nou, and then 2-0 in Pamplona, the goals scored by Jordi Alba and Ilaix Moriba.

This season

Osasuna got off to a very strong start to the season, losing just twice in their first eleven games and were very much early contenders for the Champions League berths.

Things have dropped off somewhat since then. They are currently on a run of seven games without a win and have only scored two goals in that time, meaning they have dropped down to tenth.

Valencia, Real Betis and Real Sociedad have all won at El Sadar this season. 

The players

International caps

Ante Budimir (Croatia, 8); Darko Brašanac (Serbia, 3); Jonas Ramalho (Angola, 1)

Top scorers 2021/22 in La Liga 

David Garcia, Kike, Ezequiel Ávila, Roberto Torress (all 2)

The boss

Jagoba Arrasate never played football at the highest level, but impressed as a coach at Real Sociedad, eventually taking over the first team in their Champions League season of 2013/14. He took the Osasuna job in 2018, originally just for one year, but after guiding the team back into the first division he has been there ever since