Girona’s wild and wonderful win over Atlético shows there is no chance of winning the title

Photo: Felipe Mondino/IPA Sport/Shutterstock

When the board rose with four minutes left at the end of Atletico Madrid’s visit to Montilivi, almost everyone had the same thought: come on, is that all?

It was already past 11pm on a cold and foggy Wednesday night in January, fans had ventured out for the first time since Christmas, but they would have held on until dawn if they could. Every once in a while you come across a game that makes you wish it would never end; once in a while or every two weeks if you’re in Girona, game suppliers partidazolesHe serves 5-3, 5-2 and three 4-2 and that’s it. It’s a little special even for them.

In the last match of the 19th week of the first half of the season in La Liga, Girona faced Atlético and then Atlético came back to them. There were 33 shots, 20 on target and six goals; Everything was extremely crazy. The only thing he didn’t have was a winner, and there would be no time for one anymore.

Not a second wasted unfortunately meant not a lot of seconds were added; There’s a terrible irony in the fact that the games that will gladly gouge out your eyeballs and continue to be fun are the ones you finish first. If there was any justice in finishing 3-3, there was something shared, something was missing, it was the kind of ending the night deserved.

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Or so they thought. Instead, the match, which scored its first goal 101 seconds after the stadium clock started, took its final 40 seconds after the stadium clock stopped. Midfielder Iván Martín, who was thought to be underestimated by his Girona teammates, went to Ronaldinho and everyone there lost their minds. “He doesn’t even know what he’s doing,” said teammate Aleix García.

What he did was dodge an Atletico Madrid player and then tip-toe the ball past Jan Oblak while he was surrounded by three other players on the pitch, with nowhere left to go, no room to lift his foot, let alone fly. top corner. Despite being conceded at the death, Diego Simeone said it was “a great winning goal for a great game”. Winning 4-3, Girona performed even better this time.

The story continues

Wednesday was that kind of night, a ridiculous game where both goalkeepers were superb but still had seven points between them. One night, Álvaro Morata scored the first hat-trick of his La Liga career, could have scored twice, received the Player of the Match award with 72% of the votes, and still lost.

Because it was also the night when Girona’s top scorer, Artem Dovbyk, could not score and the second top scorer, Cristhian Stuani, could not score either. Four of his teammates did it instead. When Rodrigo De Paul, who scored three goals, described Atlético’s performance as “brutal” and Axel Witsel described it as “magnificent”, they were both right but they still lost. But still you can’t say that their rivals are really lucky.

There is nothing lucky about Girona; It’s risky, of course, but it’s better this way, even if it’s intentional. In the first 20 minutes, Michel Sánchez’s team destroyed Atlético like so many others. Valery Fernández put them 1-0 ahead in the second minute with a superb curling finish. Although Morata equalized with 14 points, Girona were as ruthless as Atlético: they took a 3-1 lead in the 39th minute with goals from Sávio and Daley Blind, there could have been more, goals on goal increase like Hot Shots body count.

Morata brought the score to 3-2 with a beautiful goal at 43.33, thanks to a great performance from De Paul, and then made it 3-3 at 45.07. This time it was not counted for offside, but Morata equalized at 53.11. It was getting close: It would not be an exaggeration to say that this was Atlético’s seventh chance in seven second-half chances. Girona couldn’t get out, Atlético smothered them, going man to man all over Montilivi.

“In my humble opinion, I think we were the better team in the second half,” De Paul said. “I always thought we would win, that we would finish fourth. You miss a chance and a minute later you find another, another, another, another…”

Even Girona coach Míchel admitted: “You could see in the second half that Atletico were going to turn the tables.”

They didn’t. While time was ticking away and it looked like no one could win this, somehow Martín did. It’s hard to think of a more popular player – “You can fool the people and the media, but you can’t fool your teammates, and the dressing room was completely won over by him too,” Míchel said – and it’s not easy to think of a more important moment for anyone.

Of course, Antonio Rüdiger’s header against Mallorca a few hours earlier had ensured Real Madrid would become Spain’s winter champions; The cupless “title” was awarded to the team at the top of the table in the half-time when everyone played everyone else, but Martín’s goal ensured Girona remained level with them.

It still somehow feels unrealistic: Girona, the joint top after 19 games, the psychological turning point. The team, whose goal is to survive, has 48 points, one point less than last season. They are heading towards 96 points, seven points ahead of Barcelona and 10 ahead of Atlético, who needed a late penalty to beat Las Palmas. They have never been to Europe but they will be: they are 20 points away from last place in Europe.

“It’s a big cushion,” García said as Girona’s players celebrated in the dressing room; Blind was standing behind him on the bench, cell phone in hand – maybe the reception is better there – as his teammates jumped and Yan Couto threw a towel at him. “This is a historic night,” Michel said.

“It’s a great season: it’s not easy to be there: it was a dream to be 10 points ahead of Atlético, we could never have dreamed of it in the beginning,” Couto said, but insisted they would not win the league. “What we can do is keep going and see where it takes us.”

Getafe 0–2 Rayo, Real Sociedad 1–1 Alavés, Valencia 3–1 Villarreal, Granada 2–0 Cádiz, Real Madrid 1–0 Mallorca, Celta 2–1 Betis, Girona 4–3 Atlético, Osasuna 1–0 Almeria, Sevilla 0–2 Athletic, Las Palmas 1–2 Barcelona

Here’s the thing: Madrid remain formidable rivals and clear favourites, but this is too far away to be forgotten by chance, and as they celebrated on Wednesday it really didn’t seem so ridiculous to imagine they would be taken all the way. At the end of the game that would decide whether these two teams could compete for the title or not, there was a clear result: Girona can do it.

That’s how championships are won, that’s the luck of the champions, but that’s also the quality of them: a spectacular but by the skin of their teeth, a result that’s clinched at the last minute against a team that’s that good and that’s playing that well. Which makes me think: wait, this is real. Maybe that makes them think that way.

It is certain that Girona will not give up. Every time you think the downfall is coming, every time you think they can’t keep winning, they win. This time more than any other time. As he rose to the throne, he also left, and Madrid disappeared. This time it was enough to avoid defeat and they won anyway, still a long way from becoming winter champions on goal difference. Just when you think they can’t keep doing it, they go and do it again. And such that.

“To sum it up, it’s football,” De Paul said. “That’s why it’s the most beautiful game in the world.”

talking points

• Antonio Rüdiger’s Real Madrid teammates attacked him and he eventually took revenge. The man who celebrates his goals by punching, that is, by punching properly, had just scored one of his own goals. And it was too big, so they gave some of it back. Mallorca had impressed at the Santiago Bernabéu by hitting the bar and post. A lot He was close to crossing the line and Madrid hadn’t created much. However, with 15 minutes left, Rüdiger headed in Luka Modric’s corner. Lucas Vázquez’s 92nd-minute goal against Alavés just before Christmas followed with a header from a corner for the second time in two games to secure a 1-0 win and secure Madrid’s position as “winter champions”. “I threw a lot of punches in the last few months and I knew it was my turn,” said the German, “but don’t worry: Vinicius, Brahim Díaz or [Jude] Next time Bellingham scores, I’ll take them back.” He was asked if it bothers you that people think you’re crazy. “No, because I’m a little angry,” he said.

• İlkay Gündoğan admitted, “The pressure continues.” His penalty in the 94th minute clinched Barcelona’s 2-1 win at Las Palmas. This may sound big, but it was even bigger than that. After falling completely behind after a miserable first half in which they failed to manage a single shot, Barcelona equalized in the second half when Robert Lewandowski made his most important contribution; He threw the ball in his face and it fell to Ferran Torres to score. He then had the chance to win when Gündoğan was pushed aside. Defeat would leave them 10 points behind Madrid And Girona. They could also drop to fifth behind Athletic Club and missing out on the Champions League would be disastrous for them. Even a draw wouldn’t be good. He would also suffer against the team led by Xavi García Pimienta, whom Joan Laporta lured away from Barcelona because some saw him as the coach of the future.

Xavi, to whom Laporta eventually appealed, later remarked quite pointedly: “It didn’t happen, so why focus on an assumption?” He said it was “ridiculous” to continue what might have been and complained that the media was “always negative”. The problem is that it is hard to see how Barcelona can be positive when they are penalties away from another terrible result, when the first half was as bad as the first 45 minutes of their last game against Almería and in what he described as an “unacceptable” situation. He addresses his players at half-time and in the press conference afterwards, and it continues to be so. Of course, they turn most of them away, but since they conceded the first goal, this has happened 10 times. If the matches lasted only 45 minutes, Barcelona would be in 14th place. And it’s not just about the points, it’s about the game, and looking at the game the inevitable conclusion is: no, Barcelona can’t win the league. Frankly, you can’t trust them to hold on to fourth place.

• “If it had been a different club and a different context, I would have left long ago,” Cádiz coach Sergio said after losing to Granada, which had won just once all season and that was in August. “I hope the president has some patience because I believe we can turn this around,” he said, but he is the only one on this issue. Cádiz, halfway in the relegation zone, has not won for four months. And Sergio admitted that this performance was “unacceptable”.

• Williot Swedburg this season: no starts, seven substitute appearances, 100 minutes, two goals: scored two of Celta de Vigo’s three wins all season, in the 87th and 96th minutes. This time he helped them pull out of the relegation zone. Things are going well for Rafa Benítez’s side.

• “Shut up and show some respect!” All is not well in Seville. Actually, everything is really, really bad.