Girona’s shocking ‘power attack’ at Barca shows they are the best in La Liga

Photo: Bagu Blanco/Pressinphoto/Shutterstock

Cristhian Stuani had a long way to travel: over the billboards, over the vast, empty space between him and the Girona fans, past the Barcelona emblem that covered the void to the stands, somewhere in the distance. Long ago, at the top of Montjuïc, you can’t really see much, but what little they could see was as beautiful as it gets, and now the greatest icon of them all came into view. A few minutes earlier, when the score was 3-1, the 350 or so supporters who had made the 99km bus journey south had been busy answering every pass with a “olé” only for a late goal from Ilkay Gündogan and an even later chance for Robert Lewandowski to strike fear into them again, but now they could really let loose.

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It had actually happened. The Uruguayan, 37, had just scored his fifth in seven days and was on his way to them, with teammates close behind. The clock read 94.34 and his volley had won perhaps the best match of the season so far, making it 4-2 and securing victory. For the first time in La Liga history, Girona had defeated Barcelona, ​​the team most people in their city had supported so far. That may not be as dramatic as it sounds – although the history of the first division, although founded in 1930, lasts only three and a half years – but makes it even better; it also means they get to try again. “I think we are mathematically safe,” coach Michel Sánchez said.

Previously at Rayo Vallecano and Huesca, where he was relegated and celebrated promotions, Michel was the 100th on Sunday evening first game; it was also, he said, his best, celebrated by hugging his players, a look of disbelief on their faces as they danced in a circle. “The mother of all victories,” a local newspaper called it. Beating Barca brought Girona more than 40 points and survived. The club that just made it first in 2017 and dropped again two years later, whose budget is fourteen times smaller than that of Real Madrid, even less than bottom-placed Almeria, will now reach their fifth year as a first division side. Objective safe, it’s time to set a new one. Like: winning the competition.

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Really: winning the competition.

At the start of the season one of those glorious travel guides that the Spanish sports newspapers put out, a Bible for the one true faithstated that Girona wanted to “make history” – by reaching a third successive year first. Another set the goal of “consolidating” the first division, gaining “as quickly as possible” the points needed to survive and having a “quiet season”. Turns out “as soon as possible” was there 22 weeks left, and as for Calm, never mind. Before Sunday’s match, Michel had insisted that a win against Barcelona would take Girona to “another dimension”; it also put them top, two points ahead of Real Madrid, seven above Atlético and Barcelona. The history they are making is greater than anyone could have imagined.

This should not have happened, even because Girona is owned by Manchester City, which owns 47% of the shares. Although City offers stability and know-how, is active in structural organization and sporting planning, up to discussions between Michel and Pep Guardiola; As much as that may take away some of the romance of a club from a place of 97,586 residents achieving this, their success is not so easily explained. They don’t have any City players – only Yan Couto and Savinho belong to the City Football Group – and they don’t spend City-like money either. La Liga rules do not allow this. According to the first team budgets, Girona is in fourteenth place.

Look at the starting XI against Barcelona and only three of them cost anything, the total outlay being less than €15 million. They do not include on-loan Barca midfielder Pablo Torre. €300,000 in fines. Michel said this is “a lot of money”.

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Daley Blind came over from Bayern, but they didn’t want him. While Xavi complained that on-loan Eric García could compete against his parent club, it is not as if Barcelona had tried to keep him either. Miguel Gutiérrez is a Real Madrid player, but a 22-year-old youth product who does not yet have a clear place there. CFG-owned Savinho was at Troyes but had been relegated from the first team. Aleix García came from Eibar, where he had been relegated, and Iván Martín from Alavés had suffered the same fate. Between them, Girona’s sides have suffered 38 relegations, far more than their titles won. In the summer they lost top scorer Taty Castellanos, Rodrigo Riquelme, Santi Bueno and Oriol Romeu, who went to Barcelona for €3.5 million. “They are not doing us any favors,” complained co-owner Pere Guardiola, but no one could begrudge Romeu his step forward.

In short, this is not where they should have been, not this late. When Girona first became leaders in September, Michel said the problem was that it was week seven, not week 38. They hadn’t played the biggest teams yet and the following Saturday, as if to prove the point, they lost 3-0 against Real Madrid. . But nine more games have passed and they’re still here. It is December and Girona are top, Gutiérrez says: “Well, let’s see how far it takes us.” Even if that doesn’t involve the title, the team that has never played in continental competition has a twelve-point lead over the Champions League places, seventeen points more than the last likely European place, which is extraordinary enough. That alone is not enough. ‘Only’ a UEFA club, their new, publicly declared target, would now feel it has fallen short.

When Girona played Madrid, the defeat reinforced the idea that their good run could be dismissed. They had not yet played or beaten the best teams – they had drawn with Real Sociedad – and were beaten by Madrid. It’s also true that they have yet to face Atlético or Betis, and that they drew against Athletic Bilbao, meaning Sunday’s win over Barcelona was their first against a top seven side, perhaps reasons to be cautious to see them win the race. . La Liga’s ‘supercomputer’ still estimates their chances of becoming champions at only 2.3%.

And yet that 3-0 flattered Madrid, didn’t sink Girona and they won seven of the next eight. It’s now 16 weeks and they are not top because the leadership is cheap. They have 41 points: 13 wins, two draws and one defeat. Only Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético have ever reached this stage with so many players, their points projection is 97. And although they have taken 19 points from being behind, those comebacks are not epic or luck, but logic. They have won seven in a row at home and are only the second team to beat Barcelona, ​​after Madrid. They put four next to it for God’s sake. There were four more against Granada and Osasuna, five against Almería and Mallorca. This was a ‘recital by a leader without borders’, said the cover of Marca. “Girona rules here,” said AS. “Girona means it,” both said, and so did everyone else. This was the new dimension. “An attack on power,” L’Esportiu called it.

Not that it had been easy. Eric García said Girona felt ‘suffocated’ in the first 20 minutes. Aleix García admitted that they looked around and thought “how are we going to rob a ball here?”. But that only makes it better. Michel had warned them that they must be prepared to suffer, that the domination they were accustomed to would be denied them, but that they must find a way through, their way; they had to have the personality to make Barcelona chase them. To bring them in, capture them and play them. And that’s the point; Not only are Girona statistically the best team in Spain, they are also the best team in Spain, period.

From a sharp, decisive action behind the right back, Barcelona cut open in three ball movements, Artem Dovbyk put Girona ahead. Robert Lewandowski’s header made it 1-1, but Gutiérrez, a full-back who isn’t really a full-back, scored a brilliant second. It was open, it was fun and it went from start to finish – ‘we made 31 shots’, Xavi noted, not entirely without reason – but it also felt like it was also closer to what Girona wanted than what Barcelona did, and she scored the third with nine minutes to go through Valery Fernández, “oles” follows shortly afterwards. Michel had “one rondo on Montjuïc,” one headline claimed. When Gündogan made it 3-2, García admitted he wondered if the win would slip away, but a free header from Lewandowski, who had one on the nose last week, hit his shoulder at 92.36. And then, at 94.34, there was Stuani, who volleyed and headed towards the fans, beating Barcelona.

The way Girona has beaten others. They scored 38; In Europe’s five top leagues, only Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen have more. Two of the three players who make the most passes in La Liga are theirs – Aleix García and Daley Blind – and no one has done that built more goals than them; these aren’t set plays or lucky rebounds. In the week before the match, Aleix García admitted that he wanted to go to Barcelona; afterwards, sports director Quique Cárcel joked: “I asked him if he still does that: he says he will stay.” Based on this evidence, of course he is. Asked if Girona was the best team he had ever seen, Xavi replied: “Yes, without a doubt.”

“We saw a good side… and one that wants to be,” Michel said, before the Barcelona coach turned that on its head. He described Girona as a team that is “a bit like what we want to be”, one that “is brave, presses, doesn’t just kick the ball up”. One, above all, who is at the top of the table and plays the best football in Spain.

Barcelona 2-4 Girona, Cádiz 1-1 Osasuna, Atlético 2-1 Almería, Mallorca 1-0 Sevilla, Villarreal 0-3 Real Sociedad, Real Betis 1-1 Real Madrid, Alavés 0-1 Las Palmas, Getafe 1-0 Valencia.

Monday: Granada vs Atheltic Bilbao, Rayo Vallecano vs Celta Vigo.