Osasuna held by Ryan and the woodwork as Levante escape with a scoreless draw at El Sadar

Ante Budimir's post in the 57th minute sums up the afternoon at El Sadar pretty well: Osasuna kept pushing, kept creating, kept running into the crossbar and into Mathew Ryan, and in the end had to settle for a 0-0 draw against Levante that leaves a bitter taste. On a matchday in LaLiga, the home side controlled the game but couldn't find a way to put away a rival that defended with discipline and held on for the point.

The match opened with Osasuna pinning Levante back in its own half from the first minute. Barely had the game started when Jorge Herrando already tested Ryan with a header that the visiting goalkeeper stopped low, and the home corners kept piling up. Levante, however, didn't hide completely: in the 32nd minute, Roger Brugue crashed a shot off the crossbar following a cross from Enzo Bardeli, in the clearest chance the Valencia side had all first half. Ruben Garcia answered twice for Osasuna, with two shots that Ryan again saved low to the ground, and the goalkeeper also denied Herrando right before halftime. With all that back and forth, both sides went into the break scoreless.

The second half followed the same script. Osasuna pushed forward, Levante sat back, and Ryan became the standout performer of the match. Budimir had as many as three clear chances in just over ten minutes: a header in the 53rd minute that Ryan pushed away low, a rebound shot from Aimar Oroz in the 57th minute, and on that same play, Budimir himself striking the left post. Levante barely threatened, with Jon Ander Olasagasti and Adrian de la Fuente both neutralized by Sergio Herrera, and as the minutes wore on the match fizzled out without either side finding a way to break the deadlock.

The numbers back up what happened on the field

The stats paint a fairly accurate picture of what was seen on the pitch: Osasuna was far superior in creating danger despite seeing less of the ball.

Osasuna's seven shots on target against just one for Levante say a lot about who pressed the opposing goal with more insistence. In terms of xG generated in the match, an estimate calculated after the fact based on shot locations, Osasuna accumulated 1.487 compared to Levante's 1.101, a gap that backs up the home side's offensive edge, even though it wasn't enough to produce a goal.

The result also clashes with what was projected before kickoff: our model gave Osasuna a 51% chance of winning, with a 26% chance of a draw and a 23% chance of a visiting win, with expected goals of 1.74 for the home side and 1.12 for Levante. The draw, which was the least likely of the three outcomes, ended up being the one that happened.

What the 0-0 leaves behind

With this result, Osasuna sits on 1 point in the competition after one match played, with one goal scored and one conceded, while Levante also has 1 point but from one more match, the product of a draw and a loss. Neither side comes out particularly ahead from splitting the points at El Sadar, though the feeling in the home dugout will be one of a missed opportunity: dominating like that and failing to score, with the woodwork and Ryan standing in the way, leaves the sense that the result could have been different.