Villarreal sabotages itself and Girona brings salvation closer

Girona FC has taken a giant step towards salvation with a victory this Monday against Villarreal CF (1-0) in the last match of the thirtieth day of LaLiga EA Sports, in which an own goal by Pau Navarro condemned the Castellón team, who failed to shoot on goal and who despite everything remain third.

After Georges Mikautadze opened the Castellón team’s chances with a shot from the edge of the area that went close to the post, Vladyslav Vanat’s injury in the 12th minute forced Míchel to make his first substitution. Abel Ruiz, who came on for the Ukrainian, had the first for the Catalan team, saved by Renato Veiga, and Vitor Reis once again warned by finishing off with a header over the crossbar.

Already in extra time of the first half, the scoring opened in Montilivi, when Arnau Martínez sent a back pass for the arrival of Abel Ruiz, although it was Pau Navarro who ended up putting the ball into his own goal (min.45+1).

As soon as the match resumed, Gerard Moreno had the equalizer in his boots, but Vitor Reis appeared to score the ball almost under the goalposts. The locals responded just a few minutes later by besieging Luiz Júnior’s goal with three chances in three minutes: a shot by Viktor Tsygankov that ended up in the hands of the Brazilian goalkeeper, who then had two good hands against the shots of Abel Ruiz and Axel Witsel.

Marcelino García Toral looked for a reaction with a triple change in the 69th minute, while Girona suffered another mishap again in the form of an injury, in this case to Daley Blind. However, the three points did not come from Montilivi.

In this way, Míchel’s men forget the defeat in El Sadar and reach 37 points, eight above the relegation zone and seven from the European places. Meanwhile, Villarreal, which remains third, is left with 58 units, still 13 ahead of fifth-placed Real Betis, and 14 over sixth-placed RC Celta.