Osasuna 1 - 1 Granada CF: Ten-man Osasuna stunned by Montoro magic

Osasuna missed the chance to go second in La Liga (LL) drawing 1-1, as a last-gasp wondergoal from Ángel Montoro stole a dramatic point for Granada, ending the hosts’ three-match winning run.

With a narrow victory over Sevilla last time out keeping the 'Nazaríes’ just above the relegation zone, you would expect they might be void of confidence. It wasn’t the case though, and in fact they started in quicker fashion than their high-flying hosts and came close to taking the lead when Quini bent a teasing effort towards goal, but it had too much backlift on it and drifted narrowly over the crossbar.

 Sergio Herrera looked shaky in the Osasuna goal, and when he skewed a clearance, it looked certain that Rubén Rochina would fire the visitors into the lead, but with Herrera out of his goal his effort was tame, allowing the Osasuna stopper to scramble back just in time to gratefully clutch the ball.

As is so often the case when you’re embroiled in a relegation battle, the footballing gods seem to be conspiring against you and Granada must have thought as much, when a loose ball in the box ricocheted kindly to the feet of Ezequiel Ávila who stabbed home from close range to fire the hosts into a commanding position. 

Granada were clinging on by the skin of their teeth and needed a Luis Abram goal-line clearance from Roberto Torres’ effort to keep the deficit at one and keep their faint hopes of an equaliser alive.

What should have been a simple task to cruise to victory turned out not to have been as simple as Osasuna would’ve liked, with José Ángel receiving his marching orders, and from the resulting free-kick Herrera was forced into action to deny Rochina yet again. 

Granada had scored just one goal on the road in LL prior to tonight, so the prospects of them finding a late equaliser appeared slim, however a moment of magic from Montoro caught Herrera off-guard as the Spaniard lobbed him from all of 30-yards to claim a hard-fought point for the visitors.