Girona scored one point in its last 3 La Liga matches (Getty)
A stumble against Real Sociedad and two consecutive losses against Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao were enough for Girona's hopes, dreams and ambitions to suffer a devastating blow in the chase for the top spot and crowning the La Liga title. The Catalan team lost 8 points in one month, paving the way for Real Madrid to rise to the top of the Spanish championship.
The beginning of the decline for the team that was counting on it to break the treble of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, and write a fictional story similar to the Leicester City team in the Premier League, was in a goalless draw with Sociedad at the beginning of this February, then losing a 6-point confrontation and 4-0 to the leaders “Royal”. While the third blow came from Athletic Bilbao, losing yesterday, Monday, 2-3.
In the first two confrontations, Girona lost a battle and only shot twice on goal, and they were against Sociedad. As for the loss against Bilbao, it won possession, but Bilbao had the most shots among the three goals, 7 times, of which 3 goals came, compared to 6 shots for Girona.
Alex Berenguer opens the scoring for Bilbao early #Spanish_League #Girona_Bilbao pic.twitter.com/e9Sva7QpfH
- beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) February 19, 2024
Girona's score froze at 56 points, 6 points behind leaders Real Madrid, while Athletic Bilbao raised its score to 49 points in fifth place, just two points behind Atletico Madrid, which is in fourth place and qualifies for next season's Champions League with 13 stages remaining before the end of the current season.
In exchange for the eight points that the Dark Horse lost in the competition this season, the Royal team lost only 3 points, as it tied with Atletico Madrid, and Girona swept itself and fell into the trap of a draw with Rayo Vallecano.
This difference in points allowed him to stay at the top of the Spanish championship, which he hopes to regain its title after losing it to Barcelona last season.
Eric Garcia reduces the gap against Bilbao
#Spanish_League #Girona_Bilbao pic.twitter.com/NtsTCkHqzo
- beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) February 19, 2024
Dani Vivian deprives Girona of an achieved goal #Spanish_League #Girona_Bilbao pic.twitter.com/ZlF1ooUhEG
- beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) February 19, 2024
Of the 25 matches that Girona played, it lost 3 times and tied 5 matches, scoring 54 goals, but conceding 32. This is a large number compared to only 16 goals conceded by Real Madrid, whose attackers scored 53 times.
On the other hand, Real Madrid lost only once to Atletico Madrid last September, and tied 5 times.
In the 26th round, the Catalan team will face Rio Vallecano, the 14th-placed team in the standings, which embarrassed Real Madrid and forced them to a draw in the previous round.
In the event of a loss, it risks losing the runner-up position to its neighbor Barcelona, which occupies third place with only two points behind it, and which hosts Getafe at home and among its fans.
The sons of Spanish coach Miguel Sanchez - last November - were the most advanced team in terms of results and performance among European teams in the five major leagues, achieving 34 points in 13 matches.
The team then retreated and lost many points at the start of the second part of the League.
Girona does not rely on illustrious names or stars in the world of football, but Sanchez - who is immersed in the world of coaching, as he previously supervised the Vallecano and Huesca teams - succeeded in forming a homogeneous group that presented beautiful and balanced football, relying on a tactical scheme in which he plays mostly... Matches: It is 4-2-3-1, with its clear spearhead being the Croatian striker, top scorer and giant, Artem Dobiak (26).
The journey of change in Girona began in 2017 when the Citigroup Football Group (which owns several clubs in the world, led by Manchester City) acquired about 47% of it, bringing the club into a new investment phase with professional management leadership.
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The new administration allocated 25 million euros to build a new and advanced infrastructure and an integrated sports city to host the team’s training with advanced equipment similar to the largest Spanish clubs.
The new investment thinking quickly showed its results, with Girona returning to the Spanish First Division last season and achieving tenth place. The successful strategy in contracts also played a major role in the team’s development in general during the transfer market.
Dubyak, who will join the team in 2022 from the Ukrainian team “Dniero”, is the team’s top scorer with 14 goals (he also made 5 goals for his teammates), in which he ranks third on the list of scorers behind Billingham, the Real Madrid player (16 goals), and Borja Mayoral, Getafe’s top scorer (15 goals).
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Also comes the young Brazilian Savio (19 years old), who will move to Manchester City next season, and who scored 5 goals and made 7 others (he shares the top goal scorers with Toni Kroos and Villarreal player Alex Baena).
We cannot ignore the role of the experience factor represented by Uruguayan scorer Cristian Stuani (37 years old), who scored 6 goals this season.
In addition to a number of players, such as Argentine goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga (32 years old), who participated in all the matches and kept a clean sheet in 8 matches. He ranks fourth in a list led by Unai Simon, goalkeeper of Athletic Bilbao, with 12 matches.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies