Spain
La Liga
Saturday 11th November 2023
Kick Off 18.30 On Time!
Club Atletico Osasuna 1 Union Deportiva Las Palmas 1, attendance 20,125
70’ 0-1
73’ 1-1
@ Estadio El Sadar
Calle del Sadar
31006 Pamplona
€50 Admission + €2 Booking Fee, Print at Home Ticket
No Programme.
This morning started off with a €3 bus ride from a couple of hundred yards away from our hotel, in order to pick up a hire car from Bilbao Airport. Today would see a drive south of about 1 hour 50 minutes, to the town of Pamplona, in the Navarre region, to see another top division game. Pamplona is probably more famous for the ‘Running of the Bulls’ festival that takes place over a week of July each year, where people basically run around the city streets being chased by a bull, rather than it’s football team Club Atletico Osasuna, who celebrated their centenary four years ago, which has included four Segunda Division titles and twice being Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey) runners-up, in 2005 and again last season. Their home is at the Estadio El Sadar, opened in 1967 and now modernised to hold a 23,516 all-seated capacity. It is very compact. The crowd are right on top of the action and it generated a good atmosphere. The very small corner section for away fans was almost full, although I suspect many of them now live on the mainland, rather than having travelled from the Canary Islands (the club are from the island of Gran Canaria) and there were plenty of away colours openly displayed around other sections of the ground too, without a hint of trouble. Car parking was plentiful in the surrounding streets (free after 2pm on a Saturday apparently) and we managed to bag a space less than ten minutes walk from the stadium.
The match itself was a mid-table clash, with12th hosting 10th. Not too much in the way of goalmouth action. Both teams seemed content with faffing about in the centre of the pitch. Plenty of short passes, but achieving little, other than keeping the possession percentages high! The only real thing of note in the first half was an Osasuna header tipped round the post seven minutes before halftime. At least the game opened up second half and Las Palmas broke the deadlock with twenty minutes left, cutting in from the left before curling a shot into the far top corner from just inside the angle of the 18 yard box. Their lead only lasted three minutes though, Osasuna drawing level when a cross from the right was finished with a stooping header from six yards out at the near post. Both teams seemed to settle for a point each from here, protecting what they had, rather than trying to grab a winning goal.
