Another giant step towards the permanence of a Girona that is already closer to Europe than to the relegation places. MÃchel’s men raised the value of the point achieved a week ago at the Camp Nou, beating bottom club Elche this day, thanks to goals from Taty Castellanos, in the first half, and Oriol Romeu, in the second.
The Argentinian striker saw the goal again and became the great protagonist due to the support he had received from the fans a while before –in the 9th minute– after his cries went viral in the post-match against Barça , due to an error that could have given his team the three points. For this reason, Castellanos decided to close his social networks that same night, although, after a few hours, he opened them again.
MÃchel, happy both with his performance at the Camp Nou and with that of the rest of the team, decided to bet on the same eleven with the only change of Juanpe for David López, who was out at the last minute due to discomfort in the adductor leg right. An injury to which was added that of Borja GarcÃa, replaced by Aleix Garcia before the quarter hour. These setbacks altered the plans of a Girona who had a hard time getting into the game, much more than usual.
In fact, it was Elche who did the most to open the scoring through a former Girona player, precisely Gerard Gumbau, who had a couple of clear chances during the first half. At the beginning, taking advantage of a series of inaccuracies in the Girona defense, to end up executing a thread that Gazzaniga had to send for a corner; and further into the first part, with a shot from quite a distance that the goalkeeper blocked. Girona was not comfortable on the pitch and the chances were slow to arrive. So much so that he practically advanced on the only clear chance he had. And that wasn’t until minute 45, through Taty Castellanos, who connected a powerful header into the back of the net, after Toni Villa’s cross. Goalkeeper Werner, a substitute for Edgar Badia on paternity leave from the club, could not do more and Castellanos, who by the way will not be able to play the next game due to accumulation of yellow cards, celebrated the goal with a clearly vindictive tone putting his finger to his mouth and silencing all those who have criticized him in recent days.
Before the break, in added time, Javi Hernández still could have had time to score the second goal thanks to a well-intentioned shot from distance but collided with a successful Werner. As accurate as Gazzaniga was once again at the beginning of the second, showing a providential hand before a dry and distant shot from Collado, who had just entered the field.
This uncertainty, however, ended immediately because Elche’s possible draw went 2-0 thanks to a great shot by Oriol Romeu, after recovering a ball on the front line and which meant the final sentence for the visitors.
In addition, Elche ended up playing with 10 due to the expulsion of Ponce while Montilivi fired the team by waving and with chants of “Girona is First Class”, which had hardly been heard since the day of promotion.
2 – Girona: Gazzaniga; Arnau, Santi Bueno, David López, Javi Hernández (Miguel, min. 58); Romeo; Tsygankov, Borja GarcÃa (Aleix GarcÃa, min. 14), Iván MartÃn (Yan Couto, min. 77), Toni Villa (Valery, min. 58); and Castellanos (Stuani, min. 77).
0 РElche: Werner; Helibelton Palaces (Lirola, min. 46), Mascarell, Bigas, Clerk, Morente Body (Nico, min. 78); Gumbau, John Chetauya, Raul Guti (Collado, min. 46); Lucas Boy̩ (Sell, 76 mins) and Pere Milla (Ezequiel Ponce, 78 mins).
Goals: 1-0, m.45: Castellanos. 2-0, m.70: Romeo.
Referee: Figueroa Vázquez (Andalusian Committee). He admonished the locals Castellanos (min. 17), Santi Bueno (min. 44) and Romeu (min. 47), and the visitors Pere Milla (min. 22), Lucas Boyé (min. 57) and Gumbau (min. 73 ). He sent off the visitor Ezequiel Ponce (min. 92) with a direct red card.
Incidents: Match of the twenty-ninth day of LaLiga Santander played at the Estadi Municipal de Montilivi before 11,114 spectators.
