When you leave your homework until the penultimate day and the teacher who checks it is Diego Pablo Simeone and his Atlético de Madrid in Antoine Griezmann’s farewell before his fans, you can end up getting your fingers caught. That is what happened this Sunday to Girona, who added their seventh match without winning in a streak that brings them closer to the edge of the Second Division. The gironins are forced to win next week against Elche at Montilivi if they want to be in the First Division next season.
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And yet the match started giving signs to believe in Girona’s victory with the same 11 protagonists who started in Thursday’s match against Real Sociedad. A hyperactive Joel Roca got behind Pubill and entered the area, where he was brought down by the defender from Terrassa, prompting protests from the blanc-i-vermells requesting a penalty. More crouched than usual, the gironins prepared themselves to suffer against the rojiblancos’ attacks without forgetting the need to win. A great gallop by Bryan Gil, who drove until he found a gap to finish the play with a shot that ended near the base of Jan Oblak’s right post, was another dangerous chance for Míchel’s men.
Ounahi, missing in action in recent weeks, took the team on his back acting like a magician to hide the ball from every Atlético player who came his way. A pass from the Moroccan to Roca ended with the Catalan’s cross aimed at Bryan Gil’s head at the far post. Incomprehensibly, the Barbate native failed to place his head well and sent the ball directly out with Oblak already beaten.
Atlético, dozing with the ball, barely arrived with the capacity to cause damage in Girona’s area, less so when Griezmann insisted that the next play be better than the previous one. In just two minutes, the Frenchman made Gazzaniga intervene for the first time in the match and then got rid of Àlex Moreno and served the goal on a silver platter to Ademola Lookman. The Frenchman signed his 100th assist as an Atlético player in a dream script for him.
Since then the match opened up causing both teams to go all out. Girona enjoyed the best approaches, but their advances were useless. Every service or cross into the area seemed like a message in a bottle thrown into the ocean. There were no answers or signs of life.
Desperate, Míchel threw a bottle of water to the ground six minutes before halftime, awakening the disbelief of Stuani himself on the bench.
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The rays of sun left the green of the Metropolitano and with them the offensive momentum of Míchel’s team, who would soon resort to Stuani’s ace up the sleeve. The Uruguayan entered the match with more than half an hour ahead along with Fran Beltrán and the team momentarily revived. Shortly after, Echeverri joined them in search of adding, at least, one point.
For their part, the rojiblancos were so focused on pleasing Griezmann that Almada was too generous in front of Gazzaniga and wanted to gift the goal to the Frenchman when he was in a better position to beat his compatriot under the posts.
The faces of the 200 Girona fans who traveled to Madrid, and of the players on the bench, were a poem and a faithful reflection of the tension accumulated on the shoulders of the Catalans. As if that were not enough, Francés’ injury in the 84th minute, who left the pitch crying inconsolably, completely broke the team leaving them with one player less after the Madrid coach had used all three substitution windows. There was still a last glimmer of hope for the blanc-i-vermells, who gave their all to keep attacking with a shot from Ounahi from the edge of the area that hit Oblak and a bitten header from Stuani that went over the crossbar in what was the last chance of the match.
There was no miracle and the gironins were pushed to the edge of the precipice, forced to overcome Elche next week. Now there are no half measures. It is a final.
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