Girona-Valladolid de Liga: Chronicle, goals and result

Perhaps Montilivi had too idealized the First Division, but the truth is that at halftime everyone was bewildered. It wasn’t because of the result, a draw that didn’t convince, but because of the inability of a team that was too inactive considering the previous feelings. Girona is a team that tries to play good football, that identifies with a style without caring about the consequences. But it didn’t quite go well until Romeu got his head in it, except for a wonderful breakaway from Aleix Garcia that gifted the goal to Reinier, the youngest footballer to score a top-flight goal wearing the shirt white-and-red – in this case, the equipment of the flag on the occasion of the Diada –, with 20 years and 233 days.

Míchel’s team was thick against a Valladolid warrior who has a knack for interrupting any attempt at rhythm. From the lucky 1-0 – Reinier’s subsequent Chilean that would have meant the second already enters the realm of fantasy – and a more than possible second yellow card to Anuar, stubborn to martyr Santi Bueno to pieces, it happened to the tie and a feeling of obvious sadness. It was Monchu, an ex-Girona player, who free from marking took advantage of a bad ball release to put in a shot from a long distance that left Juan Carlos still. I would have to work on it more.

Not showy at all, the people from Girona stayed half-hearted: neither the triangulation worked nor the spaces were attacked. Things were even less clear when offensive awkwardness turned defensive, allowing Pacheta’s men, the manager who broke the heart of the stadium by winning promotion with Elche, to take a step forward. Plata tried, first by testing Juan Carlos, later with the intention of forcing a Juanpe penalty. The tie continued in a match in which three injuries had already occurred at half-time: David López for Girona in the warm-up and Sergi Guardiola and Luis Pérez in the first minutes. Kike would also go down in the second half.

From silence to liberation

He was also surprised by the silence that reigned in the stands compared to other nights. A silence turned into long faces when Kike, making a magnificent control, served the second to Monchu, who forgave. This season, however, in Girona there is a detail that was missing in other years and it is called the wardrobe. Míchel already used it in Palma, in last week’s tie, and did it again: Samu Saiz and Manu Vallejo on the field, with a change of system included. They couldn’t be off any longer.

For the team, however, the ball did not last at all; the umpteenth unequivocal sign that what they expected did not look like what they would have. How wrong we were. Vallejo remembered that Valladolid had a goalkeeper, an Asenjo who spat out his shot with his feet. And from there the intensity multiplied, with Castellanos putting the team on his shoulders, missing a solo goal in the small area and sending a second chance over the crossbar. Then Romeu appeared, to certify a very important victory, suffered until the last second of added time, with the Castilian team provoking corners and all of Girona rejecting long shots. The final cry was liberating.