Osasuna vs Malaga Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Both these sides have appointed new coaches inside the past month but both are awaiting their first win in charge of their new clubs. Defensive problems have plagued both sides in recent weeks and that makes a few goals in this game seem highly likely.

At the half-way point in the season, Osasuna’s stats don’t make for good reading. They’ve had 3 different coaches take charge of their games this term but they’ve only recorded one league win. To be fair, their latest coach Petar Vasiljević, has made something of an impact and they’ve been more competitive in the 4 games he has overseen. They’d drawn all 3 going into their weekend home game against 2nd placed Sevilla, where they twice moved ahead, only to end up on the wrong end of a 4-3 scoreline.

It summed up their season to some extent and with 9 points separating them from safety and Malaga in poor form, this feels like a must-win game from their point of view. You couldn’t confidently back them to do that, though there does look to be real value in backing there to be goals. Osasuna’s games this term average 3.26 goals per game and 70% of their home matches have had over 2.5 goals. It hasn’t been all one-way traffic either and they’ve netted 3 goals in each of their last 2 home games yet still failed to win either.

Malaga are still missing many players through injury but gave a pretty good account of themselves at the weekend, losing only 2-1 at Real Madrid. That said, it’s still 3 defeats from 3 games so far for new boss Marcelo Romero and Malaga are trying to avoid a 6th consecutive loss in all competitions here. Their recent matches have also been entertaining with both teams scoring in 6 of their last 7. Both teams have scored in 70% of their away games this season in La Liga with over 2.5 goals in 60% of those matches.

Therefore, we have strong reasoning here to predict goals and backing Over 2.5 goals & Both Teams to Score at 11/8 looks to offer value.