Osasuna dreams big. Everything is happiness in the soccer Pamplona, with the best campaign that is remembered in El Sadar since that magical course 2005-06. With Vasco Aguirre at the controls of the bench, the Navarrese team then achieved a spectacular fourth place in the league and the passport to the previous round of the Champions League. In the run-up to the great competition on the Old Continent, they lost to the powerful Hamburg of the time, before reaching the semifinals of the UEFA Cup in the last rojilla continental adventure, to which they now aspire again, to a single point of the European places in the League.
Almost two decades have passed since that milestone, which came the year after another achievement, this one unprecedented in the club’s history. The final of the Copa del Rey against Betis at the Vicente Calderón in June 2005 shines with its own light among the best moments of Osasuna in more than a century of history. Now, after 18 years of long wait with up to two stages in Second, he dreams of playing for the title on May 6 in La Cartuja.
To do this, they will have to overcome one last obstacle, this Athletic that has recovered its classic idyll with the Copa del Rey, the trophy of which it was the winner of the record for so many years. If Osasuna faces the sixth semifinal in its history on a cloud, the lions have become a fixture in the run-up to the final, a noble round of the KO tournament that they reach for the fourth consecutive season. Modern Athletic has accumulated finals but has been deprived of trophies since 1984, when they won the title on that night marked by the pitched battle between Maradona’s Barça and the rojiblancos players.
The rich history of Athletic and the resolution of the tie under the protection of the fans of San Mamés in the middle of Holy Thursday give the Bilbao team a certain favorite sign, although the league table dictates otherwise. Eighth, with 33 points, one more than its rival in the cup semifinal, Osasuna continues to grow in the fifth campaign with Jagoba Arrasate as coach. A promotion and three more than solvent stays in First Division speak clearly of the stability of a project with highly recognizable guidelines.
The team from Pamplona reaches its great night this Wednesday full of morale after the victory at the Sánchez Pizjuán against Sevilla, victim of the rojillos also in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey. Before they lost to the Navarrese in the tournament Fuentes, Arnedo, Gimástic de Tarragona and the current champion, Betis.
“It’s the here and now. We are prepared, the mood is good,” Arrasate analyzed at the pre-match press conference. His words perfectly sum up the confidence in the Osasuna environment. The coach from Biscay only regrets the loss of right-back Rubén Peña. “It’s what the coach wants, to have all the pieces to later complete the puzzle,” said the rojillo coach, who will foreseeably recover substitute players against Sevilla for his starting lineup, such as the Cup goalkeeper, Sergio Herrera, the defender Unai García, the midfielders Lucas Torró and Moi Gómez or the attackers Chimy Ávila and Abde.
Problems for Valverde
The situation is very different for his counterpart at Athletic, Ernesto Valverde, who laments a wide catalog of absences and doubts after two consecutive defeats in the League. They will not be in El Sadar Nico Williams, fundamental for his tremendous imbalance by wing, and Jon Morcillo. But it is also that the goalkeeper Unai Simón, the central defenders Iñigo Martínez and Yeray Álvarez, the midfielder Ander Herrera and Raúl García, who has lost prominence this season but is always a guarantee in this type of match due to his strong character on the pitch .
Thus, practically with what he was wearing, the ‘Txingurri’ doubts between reinforcing the rojiblanca midfield with the presence of Dani García together with Vesga and Sancet or, on the other hand, giving captain Muniain the handle in the hitch area, where he can be decisive for his ability to find the last pass.
-Probable alignments:
Osasuna: Sergio Herrera, Moncayola, David García, Unai García, Juan Cruz, Torró, Moi Gómez, Brasanac, Chimy Ávila, Kike García and Abde.
Athletic: Agirrezabala, De Marcos, Vivian, Yeray, Yuri, Dani García, Vesga, Sancet, Iñaki Williams, Cruzeta and Berenguer.
Referee: Gil Manzano (Extremadura).
Time: 9:00 p.m. The Sadar.
Television: The 1.