Villarreal sign off the 2023/24 season with a draw against CA Osasuna
Osasuna and Villarreal shared the points in a match marked by Alex Sorloth’s injury, which took the Norwegian striker out of the fight to be the top scorer, one of the main attractions of the match between the two sides, whose aim was to finish the season in the best possible way. On the pitch, Budimir gave the home side the lead in the 30th minute, before Morales equalised in the second half.
Early on, the game saw bad news for the Yellow Submarine. In the 15th minute of the match, Alexander Sorloth said goodbye to the fight to be the top scorer in the league. The Norwegian striker, in a shooting situation inside the box, struck with his left leg and immediately put his hand on his thigh. He could not continue. Morales came on in his place.
Psychologically weakened by the injury to their team-mate, Villarreal dropped out of the game for several minutes, something that Arrasate’s side took advantage of to take the lead. In the 30th minute, Rubén Peña broke down the right flank and put in a cross to the near post for Budimir, who put the tip of his boot in to make it 1-0.
With this result, Osasuna and Villarreal went to the break at El Sadar.
With the second half underway, Villarreal improved their performance to the point of troubling Aitor Fernández on two occasions in the opening stages with a shot from Baena and a header from Mosquera from a corner and levelling the game just before the hour mark.
Baena, in the final third of the pitch, slipped a pass between the Osasuna centre-backs to José Luis Morales, who, with a spectacular shimmy, left Aitor Fernández on his heels and slotted home to make the score 1-1. Baena, with the assist for the Madrid striker, earned his 14th assist of the season and equalled Juan Román Riquelme as the Villarreal player with the most assists in a single LALIGA campaign.
Marcelino’s men looked for the goal right to the end. In fact, in the last play of the match, the VAR had to disallow a goal for offside against Morales.
Villarreal closed the 2023/24 season with a draw against CA Osasuna at El Sadar. Thus, Marcelino’s side finished in eighth position, a campaign with an irregular first half of the campaign contrasted by an almost outstanding second half of the LALIGA marked by good results since the arrival of the coach from Gijón.
