Osasuna 1 - Deportivo La Coruña 3

Osasuna: Unzué; Yanguas (Iván Rosado 60'), Cruchaga, Contreras, Josetxo; Palacios (Lekumberri 46), Puñal (Muñoz 85'); Alfredo, Rivero, Gancedo; Aloisi. 4-2-3-1.
Deportivo: Molina; Scaloni, Héctor, Naybet, Romero; Mauro Silva, Sergio (Duscher 85'); Víctor, Valerón, Fran (Capdevila 80'); Diego Tristán (Makaay 83'). 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Osasuna: Unzué, Yanguas, Rivero for Sanzol, Lekumberri, Fernando / Deportivo: Scaloni, Naybet, Romero, Sergio, Víctor, Valerón, Fran, Diego Tristán for César, Helder, Capdevila, Duscher, Makaay, Djalminha, Amavisca, Pandiani.

Goals:
0-1. 06. Diego Tristán. Controlled and shot past Unzué after Scaloni crossed in.
0-2. 18. Diego Tristán. Took Valerón pass and cut in from left to chip keeper.
0-3. 32. Diego Tristán (penalty). Following foul by Contreras on Valerón.
1-3. 92. Aloisi (penalty). After Héctor brought down Rivero inside area.

Deportivo La Coruña took advantage of the draw between Barcelona and Real Madrid to move closer to the top of the table after defeating Osasuna in the Sadar stadium. Their hero once again was Diego Tristán, who scored a half hat-trick in the first half hour of the match to give them victory. The Spanish international striker was not even expected to be in the starting line up, but with his side already qualified for the Champions League quarter finals Irureta decided in the end not to rest him for Wednesday's match against Bayer Leverkusen. In fact the side was very similar to the starting eleven in the recent cup final, the only change being the introduction of Héctor as makeshift central defender with César suspended and the other three candidates for the position Helder, Djorovic and Donato all injured. Héctor showed that he had no problems with his new role when he closed down a dangerous but off target Aloisi early on, one of the only times that Lotina's side approached Molina's goal during the first half.

Other than that it was all Depor, or more correctly the whirlwind Diego Tristán, who gave his side the lead in the sixth minute when he turned Scaloni's cross past Unzué, who was only just back after a bout of flu. The keeper must have wished he had stayed in bed when Tristán cut in from the left to lift the ball over him from a wide angle for the second with just over a quarter of an hour gone, but he did manage to stop the international striker from getting his hat-trick with a spectacular save a few minutes later. It wasn't long though before Tristán got his name on the scoresheet again, this time from the penalty spot after Contreras brought down Valerón from behind.

Lotina had changed his formation for this game, but he went back to his more usual line up of 3-3-3-1 at half time, putting on Lekumberri for Palacios. They settled down better after that, although with a three goal lead Depor weren't too interested anyway in taking any more risks. The Pamplona side did finally give their fans a glimmer of joy when Aloisi converted an injury time penalty after Héctor tripped up Rivero in the area, but they were never in the match and they drop into the danger zone having not won now in five weeks. Depor close to within a point of Real Madrid and Valencia, although the Ché's still have to play their game at Rayo Vallecano on Sunday night.