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Specialists from eleven meters

Taty Castellanos scored Girona’s first goal from a penalty last Thursday in Montilivi against Rayo Vallecano. | MARC MARTÍ

After the penalties crowned Leo Messi’s Argentina in the final of the World Cup in Qatar against France, last Thursday in Montilivi, the maximum penalties were also protagonists. In this case, Girona saw two penalties awarded in their favor against Rayo Vallecano, much discussed by the rival coach, Andoni Iraola, for a foul on Iván Martín and some hands from Lejeune. With the team’s top specialist, Cristhian Stuani, on the bench, Taty Castellanos was in charge of kicking and converting the first. The second came without Stuani still on the field and Samu Saiz, after a small discussion with Castellanos, took the responsibility and didn’t fail either. At the end of the game, Míchel explained that, without Stuani, the established order of the team to take penalties is Castellanos, Riquelme and Samu Saiz and that, therefore, the Madrid player “had taken” the shot at the argentine However, he did not want to give it more importance.

Be that as it may, the effectiveness of Castellanos and Samu Saiz against Rayo shows that Girona can be calm if there are penalties in their favor and Stuani is not on the pitch. The Uruguayan’s magnificent statistics of maximum penalties, who with Girona missed 5 (three against Alcorcón, one with Quintanar del Rey and one against Almeria) out of 33 and who is the best kicker in Primera (a missed penalty from 17 attempts) has meant that in recent years there has been no discussion in Montilivi. However, this year, the 36-year-old Charrúa often has to start games from the bench and this opens a new debate. There was no argument in last Thursday’s first penalty against Rayo, when Castellanos took the ball and beat Dimitrievski. Conversely, in the second, when the Argentine already had the ball to kick again, Samu Saiz convinced him to let him throw it, even though it wasn’t his. It should be remembered that this season, the Madrid player had already kicked and scored a penalty in Mallorca’s field (1-1).

Two specialists

In this sense, the statistics say that the fans of Girona can be calm anyway if Stuani is not there on the field. And it is that Castellanos can also be considered a great specialist from eleven meters. In fact, he was in charge of kicking them in New York City with which he converted 12 of 14 in three seasons. For his part, Samu Saiz also has good numbers from the penalty spot. The Madrid player has scored all the shots he has taken with Girona (6) and in his entire professional career he has a record of 12 hits and a single miss. What failed was in 2014 when he was playing for Atlético de Madrid’s subsidiary in Segona B.

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