Marcos Alonso’s red card was upgraded by VAR, and Celta’s lead lasted three more minutes

Celta Vigo were winning this game for 40 minutes. They had Iago Aspas and they had the ball, and a Balaídos crowd of 20,645 was watching what looked like a controlled evening. Then Marcos Alonso was sent off in the 51st minute after a VAR review, and three minutes later the lead had gone. Osasuna won 2-1.

Aspas, from a Roman pass

The goal came early and it was well made. Miguel Román found Aspas in the 14th minute and he finished with his left foot, the way he has been doing it at Balaídos for years. Celta had 62 per cent of the ball in the first half and looked like a side managing a game rather than clinging to one.

The warning was in the shot count. Celta had one attempt before the break. Osasuna had four. Nobody at Balaídos was reading much into that at the time.

The 51st minute

Alonso committed a foul in the 48th minute that the referee, Miguel Sesma Espinosa, did not initially treat as a sending-off. VAR asked him to look again. The red came out three minutes later.

Claudio Giráldez did not pretend afterwards that the decision was wrong in law. His argument was that a call needing that many viewings before it becomes a red card is not an obvious one, and that he would not have sent Alonso off himself. He accepted it stands. He also said it changed the match, which is harder to argue with.

Celta’s response on the pitch was immediate and it was defensive. Carl Starfelt came on for Aspas at 52 minutes, which tells you what Giráldez wanted from the last 40. Taking your best attacker off to protect a one-goal lead with ten men is a defensible call. It is also an admission.

Ten minutes, two goals

Osasuna had already gone to the bench at half-time for Iker Muñoz. Luis Miguel Ramis then sent on Rubén García and Ante Budimir at 57 minutes, by which point Kike Barja had already levelled.

Barja’s goal at 54 came from a move through the middle and a Raúl García de Haro assist, finished from close range. Budimir converted a penalty ten minutes later and the visitors led for the first time. Osasuna took 60 per cent of the ball after the break.

Eight minutes of added time gave the hosts something and they did not use it. Sergio Carreira, on at 64, cleared one off his own line to keep the deficit at one, which is not what a team chasing a game wants from its best performer.

The expected goals are brutal

Celta finished on 0.13 expected goals. Osasuna finished on 2.68. The red card is not the whole explanation, because Osasuna were already getting into better positions before it, but the dismissal turned a slow leak into a flood. Celta created no big chances all evening.

Aspas’s finish was worth 0.06 xG on its own, which is close to Celta’s entire attacking output for the night. There is a strange sort of tribute in that for a 39-year-old, and a fairly damning verdict on everyone around him.

Where it leaves them

Osasuna have four points from two games and sit seventh, and Ramis was happy enough to say so afterwards. Celta have one point from two and sit 14th. At this stage of a season that means very little, and it still reads worse than it should for a club that finished sixth last time out and got to a Europa League quarter-final.

They are back at Balaídos on 30 August against Athletic Club, who have lost both of their opening two. Alonso will be suspended.

Catch up on the rest of the La Liga weekend