Girona vs Osasuna: Montilivi Clash Preview

GironaGirona’s second consecutive win ended in a rout. It was practically on the last play of the game when Lass and Aimar started a fight that sent substitutes, coaches and security officers flying. And the fact that it wasn’t the origin wasn’t a big deal: the Girona midfielder tackled Navarrese, who lost his temper because he saw how the game was getting away from him. The turf was overrun with shoves, punches, insults and cards, red to Lass included. Míchel’s, however, kept the points. And that the workforce has not improved, because all operations have stopped.

No matter how you look at it, sports management is totally surreal. If the summer market was difficult to understand, what is happening in the winter is not grasped even with tweezers. To begin with, the goalkeeping issue, which has been dragging on for months: Dominik Livakovic refused to play when Míchel asked him to because he wanted to leave the club and the club gave him permission not to rejoin after the Christmas holidays. But the Croatian, having expired without having reached an economic agreement with anyone, has had to return with his tail between his legs. The technician still maintains that he does not want to be in Girona and that he will end up leaving, but with the days that the problem has existed, he has noses that he has not put a thread on the needle and continues to feed a toxic atmosphere of coexistence. Against Navarre, Livakovic was on the bench.

That’s not all. On the same day that Livakovic did not resume training, Claudio Echeverri arrived, discreetly. The Argentine has been living with what will (supposedly) be his new teammates for two weeks, but he cannot process the file because there is an excess of non-EU players to whom the sports management is unable to let go. Echeverri was quietly taking a mate in the Montilivi box, a couple of seats to the left of Jhon Solís, the man everyone is pushing to leave and let him play. Many things have been said about Solís, in the last few hours: that he will go to Brazil, that he will go to Mexico, that he will do it on loan, that he will do it on transfer. Girona is struggling to collect what is left to amortize from an operation that meant around six million euros, in 2023. But of course, this takes time, and almost a miracle, because the demonstrated performance argues that it is worth it.

And yet one more, starring Yáser Asprilla, to whom we also want to say goodbye. The Colombian, at least, warmed up in the second half. But he neither had minutes in Son Moix nor did he have any in the stadium. All of this leaves the sports management led by Quique Cárcel even more pointed out, whom Míchel implores to derail a situation beyond any common sense and aggravated by the injuries of Witsel and Ounahi, which shorten an already insufficient rotation.

Two wins in a row a year later

Fortunately, the ball doesn’t understand much logic either. This is probably why football is so beautiful, because it is so unpredictable it seems absurd. The red-and-white revival on the pitch has come at the most delicate moment possible. The mood has changed: what used to come out as a cross, now comes out as a face. This is the only way to explain the two consecutive victories more than a year later. These matches, had they been played in October, with exactly the same start and body, would have had completely different outcomes.

A spur from Vanat after a fantastic play by Àlex Moreno caused euphoria in Montilivi. Osasuna could have equalized in the second half, but Rubén García’s shot was deflected off the crossbar and Raúl’s shot hit the post. The victory is gold for permanence and even places Girona twelfth with 21 points. Who would have said it.