Osasuna vs Sevilla Prediction: In-form Budimir can strike first

Two teams in the bottom half of the La Liga table clash on Thursday night (18:00, Premier Sports 1) with both still potentially harbouring ambitions of qualifying for Europe next season, although relegation is not yet out of the question either.

Osasuna went into this round of fixtures in 11th place in the table but only two points behind Celta Vigo in eighth, while Sevilla are four points further back but six points from both the drop zone and a Conference League qualifying place. Below are my Osasuna vs Sevilla predictions, supported by all the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Bryan Zaragoza will hope to be involved in some capacity after returning to Osasuna's match-day squad at the weekend, although Raul Garcia is a doubt with an eye problem.

Football Odds

Jon Moncayola lasted just six minutes at the weekend and looks set to be sidelined for a few weeks with a thigh injury, with Pablo Ibanez hoping to be given the nod from the start.

Kike Salas is available to Sevilla again after serving his suspension, but Nemanja Gudelj is out as he is to serve one of his own. Akor Adams, Tanguy Nianzou (both muscle) and Ruben Vargas (hamstring) have been ruled out through injury.

Osasuna vs Sevilla Odds

Osasuna are 6/4 favourites to make home advantage count, implying a 40% probability, while Sevilla are available at 2/1, or a 33.3% chance, for the away win, with the draw priced at 21/10.

Over 2.5 goals is on offer at 5/4, with under that total 8/13, while both teams to score is 10/11 either way.

Match Result - Draw @ 21/10

Osasuna have won their last two games to reignite their fading European hopes and are now just two points behind Celta Vigo in eighth, and three adrift of Mallorca in seventh.

However, the Gorritxoak are still 11th in the table, and those two slender wins came against 16th-placed Girona (2-1 at home) and rock-bottom Real Valladolid (3-2 away).

Sevilla have not yet made themselves safe and are only six points clear of the drop zone. Joaquin Caparros has returned to the dugout for his fourth spell in charge, and he did arrest a four-game losing streak with a 1-1 draw against Alaves in his first game in charge on Sunday.

Although it was hardly a ringing endorsement of better times coming, it at least did mean that 18th-placed Alaves did not gain any ground on them in the battle to beat the drop.

While their El Sadar fortress makes it difficult to expect an away win, given that Vicente Moreno's men have lost only three of 16 home games in the league, no team can match Osasuna's tally of 14 draws this season, and they will be heading for another.

Despite Sevilla's travails this season, they have also managed 10 draws with only four other sides alongside Osasuna having endured more, and Caparros has had a little more time to get his side set up as he would like.

The last three meetings between these two have ended all square and going a little further, five of the previous seven games in all competitions in 90 minutes have finished as a stalemate, so another is well worth considering at the prices. A third successive 1-1 in this fixture is tempting at 5/1 in the correct score market, given that it has happened a combined 14 times in the league this season for these two.

First Goalscorer - Ante Budimir (OSA) @ 7/2

Ante Budimir has been enjoying a fine couple of seasons at Osasuna - easily the two most productive of his career - and his brace in the 3-2 win at Valladolid took him past last season's tally of 17 league goals to 18.

Only Robert Lewandowski and Kylian Mbappe have scored more in La Liga this season, and, given he is also on penalty duty, he is almost a no-brainer in the anytime scorer market at 11/8, particularly with Osasuna armed with home advantage.

However, for a little more juice, he has scored the opening goal in each of the last two games and is worth chancing to do so again at 7/2, given he has notched nearly half of Osasuna's tally of 39 goals this season.

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