Girona’s shocking ‘power attack’ by Barça shows they are La Liga’s best

Cristhian Stuani had a long way to run: up and over the billboards, across the vast, empty space between him and the Girona fans, past the Barcelona crest that covered the void to the stand, somewhere in the distance. Way back there, at the top of Montjuïc, you can’t really see but little they could see as well as it got, and now the biggest icon of all was coming to light. A few minutes earlier, 3-1 up, the 350 or so supporters who had made the 99km bus journey south were busy meeting every pass with “olit” except for a late goal from Ilkay Gündogan and an even later chance for Robert Lewandowski to put the fear back into them, but now they could let him loose.

Related: Bewildered Bayern repeated a nightmare 5-1 blows open title race | Andy Brassell

It really happened. The Uruguayan, 37, had just scored their fifth in seven days, and it was going well for them, their team-mates trailing behind. The clock at 94.34, perhaps the best game of the season so far was won by her volley, making the score 4-2 and the victory secured. For the first time in their La Liga history, Girona had beaten Barcelona, ​​the team the home crowd had been most inclined to support until now. Perhaps not as dramatic as it sounds – although it was founded in 1930, the history of their first division is only three and a half years long – but that makes it even better; it also means they will try again. “I think we are mathematically safe,” said their coach, Michel Sánchez.

Previously at Rayo Vallecano and Huesca, where he suffered relegations and promotion celebrations, Sunday night was the 100th Michel primera game; it was also, he said, his best effort, celebrated by the inclusion of his players, incredible looks on their faces as they danced in a circle. “The mother of all victories,” one local paper called her. Beating Barça gave Girona more than 40 points and survived. The club that only did it primera in 2017 and fell again two years later, with a budget 14 times less than Real Madrid’s, even less than Almería based, will now be their fifth year as a team of the first division. Objective secured, time to set another one. Like: winning the league.

The story continues

Like, really: won the league.

At the start of the season, one of those glorious guides produced by the Spanish sports papers, which Bible for faith onlythat Girona was looking to “make history” – by reaching the third year in a row i primera. Another set his goal as the “consolidation” of the first division, getting the points needed to survive “as soon as possible”, and living a “relaxed season”. It turns out that “as soon as possible” with 22 a week to spare, and as for relaxed, do not bother with it. Ahead of Sunday’s game, Michel insisted that a win against Barcelona would give Girona “another dimension”; he also got the better of them, two points clear of Real Madrid, seven above Atlético and Barcelona. The history they are making is more than anyone would like to imagine.

This was not supposed to happen, not even when Girona is owned by Manchester City, which has 47% of the shares. Although City provides stability and know-how, active in structural organization and sports planning, right down to conversations between Michel and Pep Guardiola; as much as that might take away some of the romance of a club achieving this in a place with a population of just over 100,000, its success is not so easily explained. They are not a squad of City players – only Yan Couto and Savinho belong to the City Football Group – and they are not spending City-type money. La Liga rules won’t allow it. Girona are the 14th place to set the budgets for the first team.

Look at the starting XI against Barcelona and just three cost, the total outlay under €15m. They didn’t include on-loan Barça midfielder Pablo Torre as €300,000 in penalty payments to play him, Michel said was “a lot of money”.

Related: Muriel Milan’s magical heels send Pioli into a frenzy ahead of Newcastle | Nicky Bandini

Daley Blind came from Bayern, but they didn’t want him. Although Xavi complained that on-loan Eric García could face his parent club, Barcelona don’t seem to have tried to keep him either. Miguel Gutiérrez is a Real Madrid player, but a 22-year-old academy product with no clear place yet. Owned by CFG, Savinho was at Troyes, but was kicked out of the first team. Aleix García came from Eibar where he was relegated and Iván Martín from Alavés after suffering the same fate. Between them, the Girona squad has experienced 38 relegations, far more than their title wins. In the summer, they lost top scorers Taty Castellanos, Rodrigo Riquelme, Santi Bueno and Oriol Romeu, who went to Barcelona for €3.5m. “They’re not doing us any favours,” said club owner Pere Guardiola, but nobody could begrudge Romeu a move up.

In short, this is not where they were supposed to be, not this late. When Girona were promoted for the first time in September, Michel said the problem 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 are still there. it is December and Girona on top, Gutiérrez saying: “Well, let’s see how far it takes us.” Even if it’s not the title, the team who have never competed in continental competition have a 12-point cushion in the Champions League, 17 points over what is probably last European place, which is quite extraordinary. But that is not enough. “But” the Uefa place, their new goal, which is publicly mentioned, would be about as scarce as it is now.

When Girona played Madrid, the victory reinforced the idea that their good run could be dismissed. They hadn’t played or beaten the best teams yet – they had drawn with Real Sociedad – and Madrid won. It is also true that they are yet to face Atlético or Betis, and that they drew with Athletic Bilbao, meaning that Sunday’s win over Barcelona was their first against the seventies, reasons why they may be reluctant to see them win the race. . La Liga’s “supercomputer” still only rates their chances of becoming league champions at 2.3%.

And yet, 3-0 that impressed Madrid, they did not disturb Girona, and won seven of the next eight hundred. It is now 16 weeks and they are not great because the leadership is cheap. They have 41 points: 13 wins, two draws and one victory. Only Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético have reached this stage and so many of them, projecting their points 97. And although they have gained 19 points after being tracked, the achievements are not epic or lucky back then, they are logic. They have won seven in a row at home and are only the second team to beat Barcelona, ​​after Madrid. They put four over them, for goodness sake. Another four were against Granada and Osasuna, five against Almería and Mallorca. “This was a quote from a timeless leader,” ran Marca’s cover. “The Girona rule is here,” said AS. “Girona is serious”, said both of them, and indeed everyone else. This was the new dimension. “An attack on power,” L’Esportiu called it.

Not that it was easy. For the first 20 minutes, Eric García said, Girona felt “asphyxiated”. Aleix García admitted that they looked around and thought “how are we going to rob a ball here?” But it makes it better. Michel warned them that they had to be ready to suffer, that they would be denied the dominance they had been using but that they had to find a way through, their way; they had to have the personality to chase Barcelona. To draw them in, commit them and play. And that’s the thing; Girona are not only the best team in Spain statistically, they are the best team in Spain, full stop.

A sharp, incisive move in behind the right-back opened Barcelona in three touches, Artem Dovbyk gave Girona the lead. Robert Lewandowski’s header made it 1-1, but Gutiérrez, who is not really a goalkeeper, scored an excellent second. It was open, it was fun, and it went from one to the other – “we took 31 shots,” Xavi noted, not entirely unfairly – but he also felt it was also closer to what Girona wanted. than Barcelona did, and they were so good. who scored the third with nine minutes remaining through Valery Fernandez, “olés” following soon after. Michel added “a rondo at Montjuïc,” claimed one headline. When Gündogan made it 3-2, García admitted he wondered if victory would slip away, but a free header from Lewandowski, who got one on the nose last week, hit his shoulder at 92.36. And then at 94.34, Stuani, volleying in and heading towards the fans, Barcelona was beaten.

The way Girona beat others. They have scored 38; across Europe’s top five leagues, only Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen have more. They have two of the three players with the most passes in La Liga – Aleix García and Dall – and nobody has taken more goals than them; these are not set plays or lucky rebounds. In the week before the match, Aleix García admitted that he would like to go to Barcelona; afterwards, the sports director, Quique Cárcel, joked: “I asked him if he is still: he says he is waiting.” On this evidence, of course it is. When asked if Girona were the best team he had seen, Xavi replied: “Yes, without a doubt.”

“We saw a good side … and a side that wants to be,” said Michel, only to be turned upside down by the Barcelona coach, describing Girona as a team that is “a little bit like what we want to be” , one that “he’s brave, he pushes, he doesn’t just win the ball”. One, above all, which is at the top of the table and the best football is being played 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 Valentine.

Monday: Granada v Athletic Bilbao, Rayo Vallecano v Celta Vigo.