Girona took perfect advantage of Barcelona’s failure in Mallorca and, with a comeback at La Cerámica against Villarreal (1-2), they climbed to the top of the Spanish LaLiga for the first time in their history.
Míchel Sánchez’s team leads the standings with 19 points, one more than Real Madrid, which beat Las Palmas without difficulty but without fanfare (2-0), and two more than the Barcelona team, which has gone from first place to first place. third place with the 2-2 of Son Moix on Tuesday.
Girona, which will precisely host Carlo Ancelotti’s team this Saturday at its Montilivi fiefdom, is not at the top by chance, but by ability, good work and attractive and effective play.
Furthermore, as he also demonstrated in Villarreal, he has the ability to react, courage and players in magnificent form, like the Brazilian Savio, key to the reaction after Villarreal’s goal, scored by Dani Parejo when converting a penalty at the beginning of the second period.
But the South American, who had already warned in the first half, did not take long to give the tie to the Ukrainian Artem Dovbyk and the winning goal to the defender Eric García, who ultimately sealed the final 1-2, because not even the team José Rojo ‘Pacheta’ had the resources to avoid another defeat at La Cerámica, nor did the forwards of the Girona team have the resources to take advantage of any of the serious mistakes made by the Swedish-Danish goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen.
It didn’t matter to Míchel and his team, who came out even more reinforced, with the success of the leadership that they will defend against a Real Madrid that took slight revenge for the disappointments of the past derby against Atlético de Madrid, but only in terms of the result , because the game was not dazzling either.
The Italian Carlo Ancelotti decided to make numerous rotations. He left Jude Bellingham, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Fran García and Lucas Vázquez out of the initial team, and it had to be Brahim Díaz, whose previous appearances ‘requested’ more minutes, who ended the resistance of Las Palmas and their goalkeeper Álvaro Valles in the extension of the first half.
Joselu Mato sealed the victory in the 54th minute after missing several options before the break and the white team was able to relax, for which the worst news was a new injury, this time to Austrian defender David Alaba, who had to retire even with 0-0 on the scoreboard. Even the German Antonio Rudiger ended up with a blow and will be subjected to tests. If he does not recover, there is only one central defender left for Montilivi, Nacho Fernández.
Vinicius Jr reappeared after four games and tried to shake up the Madrid attack, although Real Madrid had already taken their foot off the accelerator, aware that it was better not to risk against a rival, that of Xavi García Pimienta, who also presented numerous new features in his eleven and that demonstrated its lack of gunpowder. It is the team that has scored the fewest goals, only two.
In San Mamés, Getafe stopped Athletic (2-2), which despite this will continue in the ‘Champions zone’, three points behind Barcelona. The expulsion with a direct red card just before the break of Oihan Sancet, for a harsh action with his leg raised against Diego Rico, was key.
Ernesto Valverde’s team had dominated until then thanks to a tremendous shot by Yuri Berchiche (m.6), and although they played at a disadvantage, Athletic knew how to overcome the tie achieved by the Uruguayan Gastón Álvarez (m.50) after a corner with another great goal from Iñaki Williams (m.62).
On the other hand, a shot by Juanmi Latasa (m.83) sealed the tie in the final stretch, marred by a brawl that resulted in several yellow cards and the expulsion of the Getafense coach, José Bordalás.
Real Sociedad continued its climb by winning for the first time away from home and achieving two consecutive victories for the first time this season. They defeated Valencia at Mestalla 0-1 thanks to a goal from Carlos Fernández (m.32) after a magnificent reverse.
Valencia tried without success since then and from inferiority throughout the second half when the Moroccan Selim Amallah was sent off for a double yellow, just before half-time.
Rayo Vallecano added their third game without losing and their second consecutive draw, this time in the Nuevo Mirandilla against Cádiz (0-0), who once again had life insurance in the Argentine goalkeeper Jeremías Ledesma, but he lacked it, as to Francisco Rodríguez’s team, success in attack.
The seventh day will conclude this Thursday with the Celta-Alavés and Osasuna-Atlético de Madrid matches.
