Catena Strikes in the 90th Minute to Rescue Osasuna After Nico Williams' Late Opener

Some draws feel like nothing happened. This one felt like everything happened at once, very late. Osasuna and Athletic Club ground each other down for 84 scoreless minutes at El Sadar on Saturday, and then the Basque derby detonated: Nico Williams scored what looked like the winner, went off injured two minutes later, and Alejandro Catena pulled Osasuna level in the 90th minute for a 1–1 draw.

The lineups told you how each side intended to play it. Osasuna went 4-3-3 — Aitor Fernández behind Rosier, Boyomo, Catena and Bretones, with Moncayola, Lucas Torró and Moi Gómez in midfield and Rubén García and Raúl Moro either side of Ante Budimir. Athletic answered in a 4-2-3-1: Unai Simón in goal, a back four of Rincón, Vivian, Laporte and Berchiche, and the Williams brothers as the outlets — Iñaki through the middle, Nico wide, where Osasuna's right side had to live with him all night. The game even stopped early, a delay in the 10th minute around the pre-match remembrance, before settling into the pattern that held for over an hour: Athletic's ball, Osasuna's shape, and very little space anywhere that mattered.

The chances had been stacking up without a finish. Álex Berenguer hit the post on 39 minutes, the closest either side came in a first half Athletic controlled in possession without ever quite opening Osasuna up. After the break the goals started being chalked off instead: Valentin Rosier had one ruled out on 57 minutes for a Catena offside in the build-up, and Oihan Sancet thought he had scored for Athletic around the 77th minute before the flag went up there too.

The breakthrough, when it came on 84 minutes, ran through both Williams brothers. Iñaki Williams got his shot away from the centre of the box and Aitor Fernández saved it; the rebound dropped to Nico Williams, who finished from very close range into the bottom left corner. Athletic's bench emptied. Two minutes later the mood changed completely — Williams, the scorer, could not continue and was replaced by Johaneko Louis-Jean with an injury.

Osasuna threw everything at the final minutes, and the equaliser came from a corner in the 90th minute: the ball worked its way to Catena in the centre of the box, and the defender drove it high into the goal. A centre-back rescuing the point in the last minute of a derby — El Sadar sounded like it had won something rather than drawn it.

The benches had been busy long before the goals. Athletic moved first — Oihan Sancet and Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta on 65 minutes, for Navarro and Gerenabarrena — and Osasuna answered with Osambela and Dubasin on 68, Iker Muñoz on 74, and then the double change on 80 minutes that quietly decided the ending: Raúl García for Budimir, and Kike Barja for Rubén García. It was Barja, fresh legs down the right, whose delivery into the box in the final minute started the sequence Catena finished. After the equaliser the game boiled over in the small ways derbies do — Sancet was booked on 90'+3' and Muñoz followed him into the book a minute later — but nobody found a winner in what was left.

Both goalkeepers had earned the 0–0 that lasted so long. Unai Simón was worked harder than the possession share suggests — Moncayola's angled drive pushed away low on 22 minutes, Bretones's effort tipped over the top on 38, Moi Gómez's shot clawed out of the top corner on 66, and Rubén García's difficult header held in the top centre on 69, four separate moments where Osasuna's crowd was already rising. Aitor Fernández answered at the other end: Berchiche's header saved in first-half stoppage time, Navarro's left-footed strike held in the centre of his goal on 52. And there was a warning for Athletic in the first half that nobody could have read at the time — Catena, the eventual scorer, heading a Rubén García corner wide on 35 minutes, a rehearsal for the finish an hour later. When Laporte headed wide in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Athletic's last chance to steal it back had gone.

The numbers underline how tight it was. Osasuna actually outshot Athletic 17 to 16 and put five on target to four, despite holding only 39.3 percent of the ball. Unai Simón made four saves for the visitors; Aitor Fernández made three at the other end, none bigger than the one that set up the opener he could do nothing about.

The point leaves Osasuna 16th on 12 points from 12 rounds. Athletic stay seventh on 16 points with a game in hand — a decent return, even if the night will be remembered less for the point than for how it arrived, and for the sight of their match-winner limping off before the equaliser. A minute's silence had been held before kickoff in memory of Jesús de Miguel, and the Athletic players wore tribute shirts. On a night that started in remembrance, the finish was pure noise. Follow every kick in the Game Center.