Roberto Fernández scores twice inside 17 minutes as Espanyol beat Osasuna 2-0

Espanyol needed only 17 minutes to win this one. Roberto Fernández scored in the 3rd minute and again in the 17th, and Osasuna spent the rest of the afternoon trying and failing to find a way back into a game they controlled for long spells without ever really threatening the away goal. It finished 2-0, Espanyol's away win snapping a run of two matches without a victory.

Both goals came from quick Espanyol breaks that caught Osasuna high up the pitch. Fernández's first arrived almost from the kick-off, and his second, 14 minutes later, was enough to settle the contest before the home crowd had properly found its voice. Osasuna huffed and puffed for the remaining 73 minutes but never got the goal that would have made it a contest again.

Plenty of the ball, none of the end product

The numbers make uncomfortable reading for Osasuna. They had 60.6% of the possession and 11 shots to Espanyol's 6 — and yet not a single one of those 11 attempts was on target, while Espanyol converted two of their six. Osasuna also gave away only 10 fouls to Espanyol's 24, evidence of a home side that had the ball and the territory but never the cutting edge to punish a visiting team playing a more physical, direct game.

Line-ups

Osasuna lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with Herrera in goal, Arguibide, Yeboah, Catena and Rico at the back, Moncayola and Muñoz in front of them, and Rubén García, Raúl García and Barja supporting Budimir. Espanyol set up in the same shape with Dmitrovic behind El Hilali, Riedel, Cabrera and Hinojo, González de Zárate and Expósito holding, and Marcos Fernández, Javi Hernández and Dolan feeding Roberto Fernández.

Osasuna's last five in the archive

Where it leaves the table

Osasuna went into the round eighth on 7 points from two wins, a draw and a defeat. A second straight loss — following the 5-2 defeat at Alavés last time out — keeps them on 7 points and leaves them looking over their shoulder rather than up the table. Espanyol had taken just 4 points from their first four matches: a home win over Levante was followed by back-to-back defeats to Real Madrid and Real Sociedad, then a draw at home to Sevilla. This win takes them to 7 points as well, level with Osasuna, and ends a run of one win in their previous three.

Neither side kicked on

Whatever momentum Espanyol took from the win at El Sadar didn't survive the following week. They lost 2-1 away at Rayo Vallecano, then were beaten 3-1 at home by Elche, turning a rare victory into the middle match of a run that has brought only one win in five. Osasuna's response was worse still: four days after this defeat they were thrashed 4-0 away at Atlético Madrid, their heaviest loss of the campaign, before recovering a point with a 1-1 draw at home to Rayo Vallecano. Across their last five league matches, Osasuna have won once, drawn once and lost three times, with four goals scored and twelve conceded — a defensive record that has become the story of their season far more than this single result did.

Where the table stands two matchdays later

By matchday 7, Osasuna had climbed one place above Espanyol despite the heavier defeat in between: 11th on 8 points from seven games, two wins, two draws and three losses, with six goals scored and thirteen conceded. Espanyol sat 12th on 7 points from the same number of matches, also with two wins but one draw and four losses, their ten goals for balanced exactly by ten against. Both clubs remain comfortably clear of LaLiga's relegation zone, which starts at 18th, but neither has strung together the kind of form since this game that would put them anywhere near the European qualification places at the top of the table — this 2-0 defeat now reads less like a one-off setback for Osasuna and more like an early sign of the defensive trouble that has followed them ever since.