Penalised at San Mames
The team overcame the difficulties and fought until the end despite not being able to score against a very demanding Athletic team
We tried until the end, but it wasn't to be. The team showed courage and determination to compete in a game that went against them from the start, but Míchel Sánchez's men paid dearly for some inaccuracies at the back on a very demanding stage, and they came up against a solvent and very tidy Athletic side. At San Mamés, in fact, they have won seven consecutive games and only Real Madrid have beaten them, but even so, the red and whites had clear chances in the final stretch to equalise and they had more than enough to do so.
Athletic took the lead very early, in the first minute, and the Girona side were presented with a new, much more unfavourable context in the match, which they tried to combat with personality. Berenguer intercepted a bad pass on the edge of the area, and beat Gazzaniga with a shot at the near post. Williams had a warning minutes later with a shot that went just wide of the post, and Girona found it much harder to threaten Unai Simón's area with danger.
The changeover was a good thing, because Tsygankov equalised immediately after coming back with an effective equaliser. Iván Martín was the cleverest of the lot, picking up a loose ball in the area and providing the Ukrainian with a quality assist for the Ukrainian to tap home. The joy was short-lived, and in a similar action to the first goal, Berenguer again took advantage of a team recovery very close to the area to score the second. Just four minutes later, Iñaki Williams scored the third with a cross-shot.
The team did not give up and continued to insist despite the complexity of the situation. The Girona side found an ally in the set-piece to close the gap, and with fifteen minutes to go, Eric García finished off a lateral free-kick into the back of the net. It was the turning point that made the team really believe, and Míchel's men created clear chances to equalise. The best was a double chance, first when Sávio's shot was blocked by the goalkeeper and then Solís' shot was saved by Vivian under the posts. Dovbyk also had a chance in a combination with Portu that ended with a very tight shot just outside the base of the post, and Juanpe had two more deflected crosses with his head.
In the end it wasn't to be, and the team went away empty-handed from one of the most difficult venues in the Primera División, along with the Santiago Bernabéu. It's time to keep on competing and enjoying a great season with thirteen games still to go, and very nice objectives to fight for.
