2/17/2024 0 Comments Head soccer 2 la ligaIt is right, too, that none of the six teams they’ve beaten – Sevilla, Granada, Mallorca, Villarreal, Las Palmas and Getafe – are higher than 10th (and may yet finish this round lower). “We know it’s very hard for this to continue,” Eric García admitted on Wednesday night and he was right. The last time Madrid were at Montilivi, Girona put four past them and they went into the final day of last season with half a chance of clinching a European slot. More important, there’s no guarantee it crumbles completely. And yet, there’s no guarantee that it ends on Saturday night. Only six clubs are under €50m.Īnd, yes, this is where the and yet comes. Six players came in, two on loan and one on a free, for little more than €15m, their salary limit set at €51.98m. All of them played at least 33 of 38 league games last season. They also lost their top scorer, Taty Castellanos their best winger, Rodrigo Riquelme and their centre-back, Santi Bueno, who could only be more aptly titled if his middle name was Moi. Then they lost the central piece from their midfield, Oriol Romeu, to Barcelona for €3.5m – “They’re not doing us any favours,” the club’s owner said. Last year, they finished 10th, 39 points off the top, and had overachieved. Their target this season could only be survival, they said. Although they are the team Carles Puigdemont supports, they hold little political power, overshadowed by Barcelona, 99km down the road. A city of 97,586 people, scene to Game of Thrones and with plenty else to do, this is not a football-mad place. The sides immediately below Girona are Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic: between them, they have 279 top-flight seasons Girona have three. But there it is: 6.30pm on Saturday, first versus second, a twist on that classic match between the capital’s giants and Catalonia’s best team. No one had a top-of-the-table clash in mind when they looked up Madrid’s trip to Montilivi, a ground that has holds only 14,624, some of them on scaffolding stands. “Euphoric,” Eric García said, and why not? The last team to reach primera – the club that only got there in 2017 and were gone again two years later – and the team that returned just 15 months ago, stand at the top of it for the first time ever.Ī view inside Montilivi, Girona’s humble home. Maybe even in Europe: across the five biggest leagues, no one has more points than Girona and no one is more excited to be there. The city with the best restaurant in the world now has the best football team in Spain. Pop to the kiosko on Thursday morning, if he could find one, and there it is to cut out and keep: Girona Futbol Club are top of the league. On the long bus journey home, heading up the east coast in the dark, even the manager admitted he had scrolled through his phone and taken the screengrab that proved it. This isn’t supposed to happen, but it had. At 8.20pm on 27 September 2023, the other García, Eric, headed in the goal that put their team into the lead against Villarreal, on course for another win, to carry them above Real Madrid, above Barcelona and above everyone else. “We know this isn’t normal,” said Aleix García and yet, he insisted, nor was it chance.
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