Osasuna will play the Conference preview against Bruges or Akureyri | Relief
The rojillo team will have to overcome a two-legged tie against the winner of the duel between the Belgians and the Icelanders to access the group stage.
Budimir celebrates a key goal for the European qualification. EFE
The rojillo team will have to overcome a two-legged tie against the winner of the duel between the Belgians and the Icelanders to access the group stage.
Osasuna already knows its two possible rivals in the previous phase of the Conference League. The fact of not being seeded in the draw due to the absence of continental participation in the last five years meant a difficult path, something that has been confirmed by being paired with the winner of the tie between Brugge and Icelandic side Akureyri.
A two-legged tie that will be played on August 24 and 31, with the first leg at El Sadarprecisely after playing the second day of the league against Athletic Club, which was also waiting for the UEFA resolution on a possible sanction against the Navarrese.
The Navarrese have avoided big coconuts like Aston Villa, Eintrach Frankfurt or Fiorentina, but a possible cross against Bruges will be a tough test at the end of August. The Belgians would have to overcome the modest Icelandic team first, in a tie that will be played on August 10 and 17. Classified after finishing fourth in the domestic championship, the Bruges is a historical figure in continental competitions and precisely last season they eliminated Atlético de Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen in the group stage of the Champions League.
Leaving behind the problems of participation, the team led by Jagoba Arrasate is focused purely on sports after a summer in which they have been able to strengthen the team with the additions of Alejandro Catena (free from Rayo Vallecano), the transfer of Johan Mojica and the signing at zero cost of José Arnaiz. More arrivals are still expected for the offensive zone, but the rojillos have a squad that has already shown that they are capable of overcoming qualifiers like the ones they faced in the 2022-23 Copa del Rey.
Osasuna returns 16 years later to European competitions. One of the best historical moments for the entity, which has in its history five continental participations taking into account the current one. They have played a total of 28 games, with 11 wins, nine draws and eight losses. Only in 2005-06 did they have to face the previous ones, on that occasion in the Champions League, and they could not overcome it. Hamburg eliminated the rojillos, who fell to another previous phase of the UEFA Cup that they managed to overcome, reaching a semifinal in which they were eliminated by Sevilla.
Patxo de la Rica is in charge of covering the sports information of the Basque Country, specializing in Athletic Club, Real Sociedad and Osasuna. Born and raised in Bilbao, he studied Journalism at the University of Navarra before doing an internship at La Vanguardia in Barcelona. He became familiar with Real during his stay as a writer for Noticias de Gipuzkoa, living through the stage in which Griezmann and Vela led the club to the Champions League. Beyond the Basque Country, he had professional experience in Guayaquil, Ecuador, as head of the sports department of the newspapers Expreso and Extra, for whom he covered the 2016 Libertadores Final and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. …
2023-08-07 12:44:19
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