Catena's 90th-Minute Header Earns Osasuna a Draw Against Athletic Club in Five-Goal Thriller
SportSignals Match Desk · Football analysis desk ·
It ended 1-1. Osasuna grabbed it in the 90th minute. Alejandro Catena, right foot, into the net. That is what desire looks like. That is the basics of never stopping competing. For large parts of this match, Osasuna gave Athletic Club far too much respect. They were punished for it. Then, right at the death, they found something.
The Match Story
Athletic Club were the better side. The stats do not lie about that. They had 61 per cent of the ball. They completed 476 passes to Osasuna's 251. They created two big chances. Osasuna created zero. The thing is, none of that matters if you stay on your feet and compete until the final whistle. Osasuna just about did that. Just about.
Athletic Club hit the woodwork once. Their accuracy was not what it needed to be. Four shots on target from nine attempts. That is not good enough when you have that kind of possession and that much territory. You have the ball for 61 per cent of the game, you need to be killing teams. They did not kill Osasuna. And they paid for it.
Nico Williams scored in the 84th minute. Right foot shot, assisted by Iñaki Williams. That looked like the winner. It should have been the winner. Athletic Club had earned it on the balance of play. Then Catena happened. Right foot, 90th minute, no assist recorded. Osasuna stayed alive and Athletic Club were left wondering how they did not take three points.
Osasuna's Discipline Issues
Osasuna were sloppy in the first half. Jon Moncayola picked up a yellow card for a foul on 45 minutes plus two. That is unacceptable timing. You do not give away a card going into the break. It disrupts everything. Ante Budimir followed him into the book on 54 minutes for another foul. Two yellow cards, two senior players. That tells you something about the attitude in those moments.
Osasuna made four substitutions between the 68th and 80th minute. Jonathan Dubasin and Asier Osambela came on at 68 minutes, replacing Raúl Moro and the booked Moncayola. Iker Muñoz replaced Moi Gómez at 74 minutes. Then at 80 minutes, Kike Barja came on for Rubén García and Raúl García replaced the booked Budimir. Five changes in total across the match. That is a lot of moving parts. The manager was searching for something. He found it in added time.
Athletic Club also ended the match with a yellow card, Yuri Berchiche carded for a foul at 90 minutes plus three. Iker Muñoz, who had just come on as a substitute, also saw yellow at 90 minutes plus four. The last ten minutes of this match were ferocious. That is what a derby game looks like. Both sets of players competing. That is what I want to see.
The Numbers Behind the Performance
Osasuna had 17 total shots to Athletic Club's 16. That surprised me. The home side were more adventurous in front of goal than the possession numbers suggested they would be. Five on target for Osasuna. Four on target for Athletic Club. Osasuna won 62 duels to Athletic Club's 55. They made 20 tackles. They put their bodies in the way. That matters.
Osasuna also had 29 total crosses to Athletic Club's 14. They were direct. They were long. Sixty-eight long passes for Osasuna against Athletic Club's 53. That is a team that knows it cannot play through the press and decides to go around it instead. It is not pretty. It is not complicated. It is a decision. And it led to Catena getting his chance at the back post.
Athletic Club's passing accuracy was 87 per cent. Osasuna's was 75 per cent. That gap tells you everything about the shape of the game. Athletic Club were comfortable in possession. Osasuna were scrapping. The thing is, scrapping can win you points. It did here.
Form Context
Osasuna came into this match in poor form. In their last five La Liga matches, they won one, drew one, and lost three. They conceded ten goals in that sample. Osasuna lost to Deportivo La Coruña by two goals to one, lost to Sevilla by two goals to nil, beat Racing Santander two goals to nil, lost to Real Betis five goals to two, and drew one apiece with Rayo Vallecano. That is a team leaking goals and inconsistent in everything they do.
Athletic Club arrived in much better shape. Two wins, two draws and one loss from their last five La Liga matches. Athletic Club beat Real Sociedad two goals to one, beat Getafe four goals to nil, lost to Levante three goals to one, drew nil-nil with Valencia, and drew nil-nil with Deportivo Alaves. They had kept a clean sheet in 60 per cent of those five matches. The goal they conceded here, in the 90th minute, will hurt. Accountability works both ways.
The head-to-head record across the last two meetings also favoured Athletic Club. One win for Athletic Club, one draw, zero wins for Osasuna. This was the third meeting in the data and Osasuna finally stopped the rot by not losing. That is something. It is not much. But it is something.
The Verdict
Listen, Osasuna got a point they probably did not deserve based on what happened for 83 minutes. Athletic Club were the better team. They had the ball. They created more. They hit the woodwork. They scored first. But football does not reward the team that looked better. It rewards the team that scores more goals. Both teams scored one. Point each. End of.
What Osasuna showed in that 90th minute is the only reason you keep competing when you are behind and the clock is running out. Catena did not stop. Osasuna did not stop. That is the standard. That is what this club needs to hold onto, because the form before this match was not good enough. Three losses in five is not good enough. The attitude at the end of this match, though. That was.
