Unexpected end of the Costa Brava Trophy with victory by two goals to zero for Girona against Bolívar. A blackout has meant that only seventy-five minutes of the game were played. The local goals were the work of Castellanos and Guitián in their own goal.
Girona welcomed former captain and club icon Àlex Granell, this time dressed in blue and Bolivar, in the 45th Costa Brava tournament. In a trophy that serves to present the team to the fans, Míchel has chosen to mix players from the first team with boys from the subsidiary, such as Monjonell, Sala or Ureña, bearing in mind that this Sunday the team has a another preseason test.
The white-and-red coach has lined up four of the six market additions: Couto, Castellanos and debutants Yangel Herrera and Miguel Gutiérrez. Bolívar has come out with a team with many starting players, aware of the staging of the match and accompanied to the stands of the Nou Estadi de Palamós by a large Bolivian parish. Perhaps for this reason, Bolivar has had an effervescent first ten minutes played at home.
Girona wanted to be the protagonist with the ball and hurt Bolívar by linking up with the midfielders and the striker to speed up the game from three quarters. However, the first clear chance of the match came in a pressure action by “Taty” Castellanos. The striker was the most stubborn and intercepted a back pass towards the goalkeeper of the Bolivian team. The Argentine tried to score a flag goal, luckily, but his shot went wide. Cordano had attacked the space and the angle of the shot well.
Girona has uncorked the bottle and has started to generate more chances and to play in the opposite field, with Terrats being important in getting the ball out. Àlex Sala cheered himself up with a shot from the front that went wide in the 16th minute.
Three minutes later, Girona took the lead. “Taty” has a goal and on the second occasion he did not forgive. Third goal of the pre-season in three games for the Argentine. Ureña started the game with a great personal action, from inside to outside, getting rid of two rivals. The Spanish-Dominican gave the ball to Samu Saiz and he to Miguel Gutiérrez. The full-back showed off two of his great virtues, the offensive projection and the powerful shot, to glorify Saiz’s pass. Between Cardano and the post they saved the goal, but Castellanos, with a killer instinct, hunted the ball down in the area to score the first goal at pleasure and into an empty net.
Míchel’s team warned again in the 33rd minute, but with another record, more vertical, with a transition and Girona counterattack. Castellanos has unloaded for Samu, driving from Madrid, passed into space by the cavalcade of Ureña and the subsidiary player who has not been right in the definition. Shot too crossed to the right of the goal.
Just before half-time, Samu leaked a delicate and poisoned pass at the same time – he recalled the assistance of Napoli’s day – for Joel Roca that narrowly missed the goal.
Girona were lord and master of the match, with a harmless Bolívar who was watered down as the minutes went by, but who was still alive at half-time losing by only one goal.
With few arrivals in the first half, the Bolivians lost their top scorer, Patito, in the 50th minute. Right after, Terrats was about to score, but Cardano saved with a providential low hand to deflect the shot into the corner. The goalkeeper was unable to do anything when his teammate, Guitián, scored the comical goal of the match in his own goal. In his attempt to deflect a cross from Joel Roca, the center has introduced the ball into the goal. Minute six of the second and Girona achieved a reassuring two-goal lead.
Bolívar didn’t show any signs of life until a shot by Villamil ended up in the corner in the 57th minute. Academia had to tighten up the game to stop Girona with some hard tackles punished with a yellow card.
Sávio was about to close the gap, but his shot in the 64th minute went into the corner after touching Juanpe. A play born from a change of play with the left mark of the house of Àlex Granell.
A quarter of an hour from the end, the Nou Estadi de Palamós was left in the dark, just when it seemed that Bolívar was getting a little excited. While the breakdown was being fixed, Míchel took the opportunity to sign some autographs for the fans. The problem, which had already been repeated during the afternoon and is recurring on the Costa Brava in the summer, has persisted, and surprisingly, the referee had to whistle the game early when only seventy had been played minutes Decaffeinated finale, with whistles from the audience and the presentation of trophies in the dark.
TECHNICAL SHEET
GIRONA FC: Juan Carlos, Yangel Herrera (Joel Roca m.31), Castellanos, Samu Saiz, Juanpe, Couto, Terrats (Biel Farrés m. 73), Gutiérrez (Almansa m.57), Monjonell (Pau Víctor m.73) , Ureña and Sala.
BOLIVAR CLUB: Cordano, Martins, Reyes (Sagredo m.61), Granell, Bejarano, Villamil, Rodriguez (Miranda m.61), Da Costa, Guitian, Fernandez (Savio m.50) and Justinian.
Field: New Stadium of Palamós
Attendance: 2567 people
