La Liga: Osasuna 1 Malaga 1

24 April 2012 00:10

Osasuna and Malaga fought to a 1-1 draw at the Reyno de Navarra on Monday in a game with few clear cut chances.

Nino opened the scoring for Osasuna just after half time with a point-blank header after latching on to a cross from Alvaro Cejudo.

But the veteran's strike was cancelled out by Santi Cazorla's goal 15 minutes later which earned a point for Malaga.

The away side burst out of the gate and nearly opened scoring in the first minute when Joaquin broke through on goal and only had goalkeeper Andres Fernandez to beat.

However, the former Osasuna man could not take advantage of the glorious scoring opportunity and permitted a save from his opponent.

Instead of allowing their opponents' early chance to rattle their nerves, the home side were able to settle into the game and create goal-mouth action themselves.

A corner kick from the right fell to the feet of Francisco Punal who blasted his resulting effort towards goal, but Idriss Kameni was able to deny the midfielder with a great fingertip save.

Osasuna finally made the breakthrough nine minutes after half-time when Cejudo curled a wonderful cross in to the box for a surging Nino to head past Kameni.

Manuel Pellegrini's men responded through Cazorla, who picked the ball up about 25 yards out before curling a world-class effort past Fernandez to grab a share of the points for Malaga.

With the draw, Osasuna have leapt over Sevilla in the standings and now find themselves in sixth place, while Malaga are four points behind Valencia in fourth.