Mallorca vs Osasuna Predictions & Match Preview

Mallorca vs Osasuna predictions and match preview for Friday’s LaLiga fixture. Read on for analysis, team news and predicted lineups as two mid-table teams meet.

Mallorca vs Osasuna Preview

Mallorca and Osasuna kick off matchday 27 as LaLiga returns from the international break. It’s not exactly a glamour fixture to kick things off with both sides hovering in mid-table and struggling for goals.

It is though an important game and the winners have the chance to propel themselves into serious European contention, despite some relatively poor results in recent weeks in both cases. Mallorca have only collected 1 point from their last 4 games, losing 1-0 at Real Betis before the international break. They are still producing very little away, so they really need to make the most of home games like this if they are going to sustain a surprise European challenge.

It’ll be interesting to see what Javier Aguirre does in terms of selection here. Kang-in Lee has been one of the few Mallorca players to offer genuine creativity and quality in the final third, but he was involved in a friendly in Korea as recently as Tuesday. The Balearic Islanders should be able to field something close to their best XI though, something that we’re unlikely to see from Jagoba Arrasate.

That’s largely because Osasuna play in the Copa del Rey next Tuesday as they bid to make the Final by defending a 1-0 advantage in Bilbao. Arrasate rotated heavily ahead of the 1st Leg, yet his team actually produced one of their best league displays in 2023 in that match, winning 3-2 at Sevilla.

They’ve not scored a league goal since then though and a 3-0 defeat at home to Villarreal last time out ensured they didn’t go into the international break in the best of spirits. The visiting coach could decide whether to target a morale boosting victory by picking a strong side. However it’s possible internationals such as David Garcia will be rested and whatever happens he will be without injured top scorer Chimy Avila.

Team News & Possible Lineups

Mallorca

Possible XI: Rajkovic – Copete, Raillo, Nastacic – Costa, Ruiz de Galarreta, Baba, Maffeo – Kadewere, Dani Rodriguez – Muriqi (3-4-1-2)

Coach: Javier Aguirre

Osasuna

Possible XI: Herrera – Cruz, Aridane, David Garcia, Vidal – Moi Gomez, Torro, Moncayola – Ruben Garcia, Budimir, Barja (4-3-3)

Coach: Jagoba Arrasate

Score Prediction: Mallorca 0-0 Osasuna

Curiously these sides have identical records of 22 goals scored and 27 conceded in LaLiga this season from 26 matches. That doesn’t exactly point to this being an open game and it would be no surprise if it ended in stalemate with both sides much better defensively than they are in the final third.

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