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January 6, 2024

Girona’s incredible victory over Atlético proves that their title challenge is real – La Liga

The upstarts started 2024 off strong, tying the “winter champions” Madrid and demonstrating their legitimacy as contenders.

Almost everyone thought the same thing when the scoreboard showed four minutes remaining during Atletico Madrid’s match at Montilivi: Come on, is that all there is to it?

It was well past 11 PM on a chilly, misty Wednesday night in January, the first time fans had ventured out since Christmas. They would have happily stayed until morning if they could. 

Occasionally, a game comes along that you wish would never end—every other week if you’re Girona, known for their thrilling encounters, including a 5-3, a 5-2, and three 4-2s—and this was one of those matches, even more special for them.

In the final game of the first half of the La Liga season, Girona and Atlético Madrid engaged in a fierce battle. The match featured 33 shots, 20 on target, and six goals, creating a wonderfully chaotic spectacle. However, as time ran out, it ended without a definitive winner.

Sadly, the fast-paced action added a few seconds to the match. It’s a grim irony that entertaining games often finish quickly, while the tedious ones seem to drag on. While a 3-3 draw felt like a fitting conclusion, it also left a sense of disappointment, as the thrilling evening deserved a more decisive ending.

At least, that’s what they believed. Instead, the final 40 seconds of the game came after the stadium clock stopped, even though the first goal was scored 101 seconds after the clock began. Everyone in the stadium lost their minds when Iván Martín, a midfielder for Girona who is regarded as underappreciated by his teammates, went all Ronaldinho. Teammate Aleix García remarked, “He doesn’t even know what he did.”

He had escaped one Atlético Madrid player and then, surrounded by three more of them just inside the area, nowhere left to go, no room to lift his foot, let alone let fly, toe-poke the ball past Jan Oblak and into the top corner. It was, Diego Simeone said, despite being defeated at the death, “a great winning goal for a great game.” As 4-3 winners, Girona had only done it again, just even better this time.

On Wednesday, there was a ridiculous game in which both goalkeepers performed exceptionally well. However, they still allowed seven goals between them. On that particular night, Álvaro Morata recorded his first hat-trick in La Liga, had the opportunity to score two more, won 72% of the vote for Player of the Match, and yet failed to win.

That night, Girona’s top scorer, Artem Dovbyk, and their second-best scorer, Cristhian Stuani, failed to score. Instead, it was the four teammates who did. When Axel Witsel called Atlético’s performance “spectacular” and Rodrigo De Paul, who scored three goals, called it “brutal,” and when both of them were correct, Atlético still lost. And yet, it was still difficult to conclude that their rivals were fortunate.

Girona is not fortunate in any way; it is risky but deliberate, and all the better for it. Michel Sánchez’s team dismantled Atlético in the first twenty minutes, just as they did many other times. Valery Fernández gave them a 1-0 lead with a stunning curled finish in the second minute. Girona was as unrelenting as Atlético was prone to mistakes, even though Morata pulled even on 14 minutes in. They took a 3-1 lead in the 39th minute thanks to goals from Sávio and Daley Blind, but there was still room for more as the number of shots on goal added up like a Hot Shots body count.

With a well-executed goal on 43.33 and, he believed, a 3-3 goal on 45.07 thanks to De Paul’s excellent play, Morata made it 3-2. Although Morata equalized on 53.11, the goal was disqualified for offside. The fact that it was Atlético’s seventh opportunity in seven second-half minutes was not hyperbole. It had been coming. Atlético smothered Girona and went man-to-man throughout Montilivi, making it impossible for them to flee.

“In my humble opinion, I think we were the better team in the second half,” said De Paul. “I always thought we would win, that we would get the fourth. You miss a chance and then a minute later you get another one, and another, and another, and another …”

Even Girona coach Míchel admitted: “In the second half you could see that Atlético were going to turn it around.”

No, they didn’t. Even though it seemed like nobody could win, Martín managed to do so in the end. Hard to conceive of a player who is more well-liked. “You can con the people and the media but not your teammates, and the dressing room is totally won over by him,” Míchel said – and it’s not easy to think of a more significant moment either.

It’s hard to imagine a more significant moment. Sure, Antonio Rüdiger’s header against Mallorca earlier that day secured Real Madrid’s status as Spain’s winter champions, earning them the “title” given to the team at the top of the table at the halfway mark. However, Martín’s goal ensured that Girona stayed level with them.

It still feels surreal: Girona, joint top after 19 games, marking a psychological milestone. The team that aimed for survival now has 48 points—just one fewer than they achieved in the entire last season. They’re on track for 96 points, sitting seven ahead of Barcelona, who needed a late penalty to edge past Las Palmas, and ten ahead of Atlético. Having never played in Europe, they are now 20 points clear of the final European qualification spot.

“It’s a big cushion,” García said as Girona’s players celebrated in the dressing room, Blind standing on the bench behind him, mobile phone in hand – maybe the reception is better up there – while teammates leapt about and Yan Couto threw towels at him. “This is a historic night,” Míchel said.

“It’s a great season: it’s not easy to be up there: being 10 points ahead of Atlético is a dream, we would never have imagined that at the start,” Couto said, although he also insisted they can’t win the league. “What we can do is keep going and see where it takes us.”

And that’s the crux: while Madrid remains a formidable opponent and the clear favorite, Girona’s achievements cannot be dismissed as a mere fluke. As they celebrated on Wednesday, it didn’t seem far-fetched to envision them continuing this impressive run. The match was set up as a test of whether these two teams could contend for the title, and by the end, one conclusion emerged: Girona is capable.

This victory had the makings of a title-winning performance, showcasing both the luck and quality of champions. It was a brilliant yet hard-fought win, secured in the last minute against a strong opponent. It prompted a realization: this is for real. Perhaps even Girona themselves are starting to believe.

They’re certainly not backing down. Just when it seems they might falter, they keep winning—this time, more than ever. As the match drew to a close, Madrid faded away, and Girona managed to avoid defeat, coming tantalizingly close to being winter champions based on goal difference. When you think they can’t sustain this success, they surprise everyone and do it can’t—and in style.

“To sum it up, it’s football,” De Paul said. “And that’s why it’s the loveliest game on earth.”

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