A hardworking Villarreal pay tribute to Asenjo in a convincing win over Osasuna
The best tribute posible. Villarreal paid tribute to the injured Sergio Asenjo with a resounding victory over Osasuna (1-4), in which the Yellows, hardworking and with a clear game plan, put on a great display at the El Sadar stadium.
With a great performance by Roberto Soldado, who confirmed his return to the side with a goal, and a brace by Santos Borré, Fran Escribá’s side remain well in the fight for the European spots, currently in sixth place and maintaining the gap from the teams on their heels.
It was a first half full of emotions. The match had hardly begun when Bakambu, after a long forward run, got through the red defence and hit a great shot that came back off the post and fell to the feet of Rorberto Soriano, and the Italian made no mistake with the rebound to open the scoring (0-1).
The goal did not dampen Osasuna’s spirits, in fact it did quite the opposite. After the visitors’ goal, the side from Navarra had several chances, but it was actually the Yellows, in the 25th minute, that would get the second and extend their lead. The goal came from the penalty spot as Berenguer clearly brought down Soldado in the box. The striker took the spot kick himself and was shown a yellow card for taking his first before the whistle, but he scored the repeat anyway.
After the second goal, the Submarine kept the ball on the ground and tried to reduce the extremely high tempo of the game. With long balls, and looking to take advantage of Bakambu’s speed, Fran Escribá’s side tried to contain the Pamplona team, who hardly had a sniff of Andrés Fernández’s goal.
The second half was not as fast-paced as the first, but it got quicker and quicker. Villarreal were focused on staying strong at the back and attacking powerfully on the counter and the match, after the first quarter of an hour, started to open up again. In the 62nd minute, Musacchio obstructed Sergio León and the referee pointed to the spot and Torres converted.
The locals piled on the pressure and intensity but Villarreal had a thousand and one things up their sleeves. In the 73rd minute, a counterattack left Santos Borré one one one with Sirigu and the Colombian fired his shot past the home side’s goalkeeper to make it 1-3.
Four minutes later, with almost no time to digest the advantage, Musacchio played a great long ball forward to the Colombian striker who got himself a second goal and sentenced the clash (1-4). After the fourth Submarine goal, the match clamed down significantly and, although the locals tried to get forward, the score line stayed the same.
Lineups:
CA Osasuna: Sirigu; Berenguer, Oier, Unai García, Vujadinovic, Clerc (Aitor Buño, m. 75); Causic, Imanol García (Olavide, m. 59), Roberto Torres; Oriol Riera (Kenan, m. 78) and Sergio León.
Villarreal CF: Andrés Fernández; Rukavina, Musacchio, Álvaro, Jaume Costa (Víctor Ruiz, m. 65); Rodrigo, Manu Trigueros, J. Dos Santos, Soriano; Bakambu (Samu Castillejo, m. 84) and Soldado (Santos Borré, m. 68).
Goals: 0-1. Min. 3: Soriano. 0-2. Min. 26: Soldado, penalty. 1-2, min. 62: Roberto Torres, penalty. 1-3. Min. 73: Santos Borré. 1-4. Min. 77: Santos Borré.
Referee: José Luis González González (Castilla-León, Spain). Cautioned: Berenguer (m. 25), Roberto Torres (m. 76) and Sergio León (m. 76) for Osasuna and Soldado (m. 25), Rukavina (m. 35) and Soriano (m. 71) for Villarreal.
Match Information: Match corresponding to Matchday 25 of the LaLiga Santander played at the El Sadar stadium in front of 13,409 spectators. The players stepped out onto the field with a a shirt to honour the recently injured Sergio Asenjo with the words “Ánimo Asenjo”.
