- Girona continued their impressive performance in La Liga this season by beating Atletico Madrid 4-3 on Wednesday
- Whereas Girona extended their unbeaten run to eleven games, Atletico failed to win a league match for the third consecutive time
Girona continued their impressive performance in La Liga this season by beating Atletico Madrid 4-3 during the Girona vs Atletico fixture. Alvaro Morata scored a hat-trick but that was not enough to put the brakes on Girona, who secured victory thanks to a dramatic stoppage time goal scored by Ivan Martin.
This was Girona’s first-ever win over Atletico and coach Michel described it as “historic” while cooling any talk of winning the La Liga title this season. The Blanquivermells have been on red-hot form this season and have only lost one league match to Real Madrid.
Alvaro Morata scored a hat-trick in the Girona vs Atletico match. Photo/ Yardbarker.
“It’s not the objective [winning La Liga]. First to think game by game and try to reach Europe, which would make history for this club. Today a really great game, really difficult, did a lot well. Atletico as well, a great game. My players have an incredible mentality: resilience in the bad moments, always give everything to take the match forward. For me the success of these players is that.” ESPN quotes coach Michel.
Girona are playing in the Spanish top-flight for only the fourth season in their history and have never finished higher than 10th in the standings. Following their memorable victory over Atletico Madrid, Girona are level on points (48) with Real Madrid on top of the table. Coach Michel’s side are ten points above both Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, although Barcelona have a game in hand which they will be playing today (Thursday).
Girona Vs Atletico
Girona made a rampant start at Estadio Municipal de Montilivi and scored inside the opening two minutes. Valey Fernandez cut inside from the left after being picked out by Pablo Torre and curled a beautiful shot from 20 yards that went straight into the net.
With Girona taking a 1-0 lead in this game, pressure was on Diego Simeone’s side considering the hosts outstanding performance since the start of the season. However, a rattled Atletico found their way back into this match in the 14th minute when Alvaro Morata latched onto Antoine Griezmann’s ball to fire a clinical strike past goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.
Savio restored Girona’s lead just 12 minuted later after Jan Oblak pushed away Martin’s shot. This is a goal that Atletico captain Koke will never want to see again as the ball was stolen from him by Martin after he received a pass from Griezmann.
Girona were leading 3-1 after 31 minutes of play, thanks to Daley Blind‘s close-range volley. The former Manchester United and Bayern Munich man reacted quickly at the far post to direct Dovbyk’s flick-on from a well taken corner.
Just when it seemed things were going Girona’s way, Morata pulled one back for Atletico with a fine solo run in the last minute of the first half. The former Chelsea striker then thought he had completed a remarkable first half in Catalonia with a hat-trick seconds later but his goal was ruled out for offside.
Whatever Diego Simeone told his players during the break worked as they had levelled the score eight minutes after the restart. It was Morata who eventually completed his hat-trick after being picked out by Rodrigo De Paul.
Girona beat Atletico Madrid 4-3 on Wednesday. Photo/ FBC News.
With the scoreboard reading 3-3, Atletico dominated the proceedings forcing Girona keeper to make several decent saves. However, it was the hosts who had the final say in this Girona vs Atletico fixture when Martin scored in stoppage time.
Whereas Girona extended their unbeaten run to eleven games, Atletico failed to win a league match for the third consecutive time. Atletico and Girona start their Spanish Cup campaigns this coming weekend against Lugo and Elche, respectively.
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