Osasuna achieved a surprise 2-0 home victory in Atletico Madrid in Laliga when headers of Alejandro Catena and Ante Budimir increased their European hope.
Atletico had already secured the Champions League qualification for 2025-26 with a 4-0 routing Real Sociedad routing on Saturday, while Osasuna was looking for Rayo Vallecano in eighth place-one position that will be sufficient to secure Conference League football.
Defender Catena led a corner of Bryan Zaragoza along the rooted Jan Oblak to put the hosts in the front in the 25th minute, between two expensive misses of Atleti's Alexander Sorloth.
Visitors to Diego Simeone continued to dominate the possession while sought a way back to the game, but after a Scrappy passage of playing in midfield, Budimir came across his marker to convert the cross of Kike Barja with a nice dive head eight minutes of time.
Osasuna Leapfrog Mallorca saw the result in the table, after the last defeat of the latter against Real Madrid on Wednesday.
POV: The bell just went and the long weekend started! #Letsgorojillos pic.twitter.com/rdssf2rgyo
– Ca Osasuna (@osasuna_en) 15 May 2025
Osasuna from Vicente Moreno are now only outside the top eight of the goal difference and are a single goal behind Rayo Vallecano with two more games.
Vallecano wasted a 2-0 lead in a 2-2 draw with real betis elsewhere on Thursday, because their own conference competition hoped to have a blow.
Jorge de Frutos scored the opener of Vallecano, who jumped on the rebound after Pedro Diaz beat the Dwarsbalk from 35 meters, and then Florian Lejeune put them two with a low free kick from the left corner of the box.
Cucho Hernandez, however, pushed a neat finish in the nearby pole to get Betis back in the game, after which the 61st minute penalty from Isco received the level of visitors, where Vallecano missed various opportunities for a winner.
Data Debrief: Budimir follows Suker and Peternac
Osasuna qualified for the Conference League with a seventh-placed finish in Laliga two years ago, although they were allocated into the play-off round of the competition.
Their hope for another – hopefully longer – European adventure was stimulated on Thursday, with matches against the wrestling duo Espanyol and Alaves for them.
The Duikkop van Budimir achieved the points for the hosts, because he became the third Croatian who scored 20 goals in a single season in Laliga, after Davor Suker (24 with Sevilla in 1993-94, 24 with Real Madrid in 1996-97) and Alen Peternac (23 with real Valladolid).