In a game that will be forever remembered for Ante Budimir’s penalty, Valencia picked up a vital three points away from home against Osasuna in their bid to return to European football.
If Osasuna picked up three points, they would have cut the gap to Los Che to two points, and brought themselves within three of the final European place in seventh. It was Valencia that started off with the necessary aggression though, and began robbing the ball off Osasuna, unleashing several dangerous breaks in the first half.
Sergio Herrera kept one of them out, but Andre Almeida’s drive across goal into the bottom left corner from the right side of the box gave Valencia the lead. In spite of some late Osasuna pressure, Ruben Baraja’s side made it to the break ahead.
Los Rojillo set up to lay siege to the Valencia in the second half, and while they hemmed their visitors in, they struggled to create chances. Cristhian Mosquera put in another excellent performance at the back, but Giorgi Mamardashvili remained largely untested, even if Budimir did flash a couple of efforts close.
The big Croatian looked as if he had come up with the goods in stoppage time though. He was caught by an errant Hugo Guillamon foot in the box, and stepped up to take it after a lengthy VAR review. Budimir’s penalty, in equal measures shocking and absurd, ended a nine-year run of scoring spot kicks though. Valencia could scarcely believe their fortune, but they will take the three points to the East Coast.
As it was, they all but put Osasuna out of the European race, stretching the gap between the two to eight points, with seven games to go. Baraja’s miracle continues, as they leapfrog Real Betis into seventh by a point too. Osasuna manager Jagoba Arrasate explained that Budimir (15 goals) apologised three times after the game, and he must wait until next week to try and catch Jude Bellingham (16) and Artem Dovbyk (17) in the Pichichi race.
