Lucas Boyé's hat-trick fires Deportivo Alavés to a 5-2 win over CA Osasuna

Deportivo Alavés kept pace with Barcelona at the top of LaLiga with a five-goal show at Mendizorroza, built almost entirely around one man: Lucas Boyé.

Boyé opened the scoring in the 27th minute and struck twice more, on 51 and 68, for his first hat-trick of the season. Mariano Díaz got in on the act with a goal in the 36th minute, and Pablo Ibáñez completed the rout in the 90th. Osasuna's Ante Budimir kept the visitors in it with a goal on 46 and a converted penalty on 64, but it was never enough to threaten a real comeback.

Match facts

• 27' — Lucas Boyé (Alavés)
• 36' — Mariano Díaz (Alavés)
• 46' — Ante Budimir (Osasuna)
• 51' — Lucas Boyé (Alavés)
• 64' — Ante Budimir (Osasuna, penalty)
• 68' — Lucas Boyé (Alavés)
• 90' — Pablo Ibáñez (Alavés)

What's next

Alavés stay second on 10 points, three behind leaders Barcelona but ahead of Real Madrid and Real Betis on goal difference. Osasuna drop to 8th on 7 points after their first defeat of the season. Both sides return for matchday 5 after the international break.

Two very different second halves

Split by half, the scoreline tells its own story. Alavés were already 2-0 up at the break through Boyé and Mariano Díaz, then pulled away again after Osasuna had cut it back to 2-1: Boyé's second and third either side of Budimir's penalty put the game out of reach before Ibáñez's stoppage-time finish rounded off the biggest win of Alavés's season so far.

Alavés cooled off, Osasuna kept sliding

Mendizorroza turned out to be the peak of Alavés's autumn rather than the start of a title charge. They have not won since: a 1-2 defeat away to Racing Santander, a 0-1 home loss to Valencia and a goalless draw at Athletic Club left them without a win in their following three matches. Even so, the damage was limited enough to keep them in the European places — a +5 goal difference that only Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid better across the whole division.

Osasuna's slide went further. The defeat at Mendizorroza was the first of what became a four-match winless run: a 0-2 loss at home to Espanyol, a heavy 0-4 beating away to Atlético Madrid, and a 1-1 draw with Rayo Vallecano going into the international break. Their goal difference has fallen to -7, and only Racing Santander, Valencia and Málaga have a worse one in LaLiga this season.

Where it leaves them now

Three matchdays on, Alavés sit 6th with 11 points from seven games (three wins, two draws, two losses) — inside the Conference League play-off place, the zone reserved for the sixth-placed side. Osasuna have dropped to 11th on 8 points (two wins, two draws, three losses), mid-table but with little breathing room above the relegation places given how leaky their defence has been. The 5-2 at Mendizorroza remains their only meeting of the season.

Osasuna's problem was never really the defeat at Mendizorroza on its own — it is how little the team has scored all season. Six goals in seven LaLiga matches ties them with Real Sociedad for the fourth-fewest tally in the division; only Getafe (3), Málaga (3) and Valencia (4) have managed fewer. Two of those six came from Budimir in this single match, which underlines how thin the goal threat has been everywhere else in the Osasuna side.

The forwards who decided it

Boyé's hat-trick was the individual headline: the Argentine forward was born on 28 February 1996 in San Gregorio. Budimir, the man on the other end of Osasuna's goals, was born on 22 July 1991 in Croatia — the elder of the two by almost five years, and the one who stepped up to take the penalty that made it 3-2.