Real Madrid will be bidding to move to within five points of La Liga leaders Barcelona when they head to Estadio El Sadar on Saturday night to face Osasuna.

Los Blancos will enter the clash off the back of a 4-0 win over basement side Elche on Wednesday night, while Osasuna, who sit ninth in the table, drew 0-0 with Real Valladolid last weekend.

Match preview

Osasuna have enjoyed a solid campaign to date, with a record of eight wins, six draws and seven defeats from 21 matches bringing them 30 points, which is enough for ninth position in the table heading into the next set of fixtures in Spain's top flight.

Jagoba Arrasate's side are only actually three points behind sixth-placed Rayo Vallecano in the race for European football, but they have won just one of their eight in the league, which came at home to Mallorca in the middle of last month.

Los Rojillos have drawn three of their last four La Liga matches, including their last two against Espanyol and Real Valladolid, playing out a 0-0 with the latter last weekend.

Osasuna will need to start putting some more victories on the board in order to be serious challengers for the top six, though, and they have two important matches after this one against Sevilla and Celta Vigo.

The Pamplona outfit, who have finished 10th, 11th and 10th in their last three La Liga campaigns, have won six and lost four of their 10 home league fixtures during the 2022-23 season.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, were 11 points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona last weekend, with the reigning champions not featuring in the league due to their involvement in the Club World Cup, which they won by overcoming Al Ahly and Al-Hilal in the semi-finals and final respectively.

Carlo Ancelotti's side suffered a 1-0 defeat to Mallorca in the league on February 5, but they managed to return to winning ways on Wednesday evening, scoring four unanswered goals against Elche.

Karim Benzema struck twice, while Marco Asensio and Luka Modric were also on the scoresheet, as Los Blancos secured a comfortable three points at the expense of the team at the bottom of the division, with the gap from first to second now eight points.

Barcelona are not in action until Sunday night, so a victory for Real Madrid in this match would see the gap become five, and Ancelotti's side cannot afford many more slip-ups if they are to stand a serious chance of retaining the title this season.

Los Blancos will switch their attention to the Champions League after this match, heading to Liverpool next week for the first leg of their last-16 affair, while the month ends with the small matter of a Madrid derby at home to Atletico Madrid in Spain's top flight.

Real Madrid were actually held to a 1-1 draw by Osasuna at Bernabeu back in October, but the capital giants have not lost to their opponents this weekend since January 2011.

Team News

Osasuna's squad will be boosted by the return of Abde Ezzalzouli following a suspension, and the on-loan Barcelona attacker is expected to return to the starting side for this match.

However, Ezequiel Avila, who has seven league goals this season, and Juan Cruz will now serve bans of their own, while Aimar Oroz, Ruben Pena and Nacho Vidal are out of the clash with the champions due to injury problems.

Kike Garcia is pushing to be included in an advanced area and might be preferred to Kike Barja, but Ante Budimir will again lead the line for the home side.

As for Real Madrid, Ancelotti has confirmed that number one goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois will return from a thigh problem against Osasuna this weekend.

Vinicius Junior is also available, having served a suspension against the league's basement side, but Toni Kroos (illness) and Karim Benzema (muscle fatigue) are both out of the match.

Los Blancos will also again definitely be without the services of Ferland Mendy due to a hamstring problem, but Eden Hazard has recovered from a knee issue to make the squad.

Modric could come back into the starting XI for this match, with Nacho, Eduardo Camavinga and Asensio and potentially dropping down to the bench following Wednesday's clash.

Osasuna possible starting lineup:
Fernandez; Moncayola, Aridane, U Garcia, Sanchez; Ibanez, Torro, M Gomez; Ezzalzouli, Budimir, K Garcia

Real Madrid possible starting lineup:
Courtois; Carvajal, Militao, Rudiger, Alaba; Modric, Tchouameni, Ceballos; Valverde, Rodrygo, Vinicius

We say: Osasuna 0-1 Real Madrid

Real Madrid must keep winning in order to stay in touch with Barcelona, so there is no downplaying the importance of this match. Osasuna are capable of making this an uncomfortable game, and the hosts will be the fresher of the two teams, but we are expecting Ancelotti's side to secure all three points.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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