Alessio Lisci: “These are three points worth their weight in gold”

Osasuna head coach Alessio Lisci praised his team’s resilience and momentum after a 2-1 win at Celta Vigo on Sunday, calling the result “three points worth their weight in gold.”

Lisci said the victory was especially important as Osasuna begin a challenging run of away fixtures in LaLiga.

“I feel we’re doing well, and the results are backing that up,” Lisci said. “It’s very important that when you’re playing well, you get the points too, because the difficult moments and tough stretches will come back. Today was crucial because we’re starting a series of away matches. No away game in the first division is easy, and we also have very difficult matches at home, so we have to balance things out.”

“These are three points that are worth gold for us,” he added. “But we know we haven’t done anything yet, because with the points we have, we’re not safe. So we have to work harder than ever to keep this going.”

Lisci highlighted Osasuna’s response after conceding the equalizer, noting that his team continued pressing and searching for the winning goal instead of retreating.

“Celta attack very well and you have to try to keep them away from your goal,” he said. “But you know they will beat the press at times because they have a lot of patterns and they do it really well. When they break through, the field opens up and they can hurt you.”

He said Osasuna’s plan was to maintain pressure and keep possession, believing Celta are less comfortable defending for long periods.

“We had to keep pressing and keep the ball when we had it, because they don’t really like to press,” Lisci said. “If we could string passes together, we could hurt them, and that’s how the match developed. Staying on the same path after the equalizer paid off, although it’s true that when they broke our press, they could have made it 2-1.”

Lisci also praised Celta’s quality and admitted the draw may have been the fairer outcome, but said Osasuna benefited from a positive run of form.

“We’re very happy because it’s very difficult to play against Celta,” he said. “They play very good football, they have very clear ideas and they are extremely tough to face. I think we played a very good match.”

“I actually think we deserved to win more in the first leg than today,” Lisci added. “Today, the draw was probably the fairest result. It was a match where both teams could have won because when either side beat the press, the game opened up and chances appeared.”

“But that’s football,” he said. “When you’re in a good run, sometimes things go your way. In the first leg, whenever something could go against us, it did.”

Lisci said the win carried added significance given the opponent and the venue.

“You have to consider where we’re playing and who we’re playing against,” he said. “I really like Celta. They have very good players and they are very, very well coached. This win is very valuable.”