The last time Girona appeared at the Santiago Bernabeu they won 1-2. It was on February 17, 2019, with Eusebio Sacristán on the bench. From that team only two players will repeat in the Girona squad because Juanpe is out and Bernardo was injured at the time. One of the survivors is Stuani, author of the first visiting goal. The other is Aleix Garcia, who entered the break with Madrid winning and with his presence helped Girona take control and come back.
The midfielder, who was 21 and is now 25, will start this time around considering what Míchel has done to date. Garcia has been in the lineup forever. And since matchday 4, at his side is without fail Oriol Romeu.
The two midfielders have become inseparable in the team that is fighting to get out of the relegation zone. It couldn’t be any other way than to connect. Not only does a past in the Premier League unite them – one more than the other – but both were born in the same town: Ulldecona, a town in Tarragona, with just over 6,000 inhabitants. They were friends of the town, now they are the residents and owners of the pivot of Girona.
Until very recently in the entire history of the First Division, only two players from that municipality of Montsià had participated in the highest category. Both had played for Espanyol. Twenty years separated them. Labernia played two games in the 63-64 League while Albert Forcadell, in the eighties, played 28 games in three seasons.
Oriol Romeu (1991) was the third when he made his debut for Guardiola’s Barça in 2011. It only lasted 9 minutes. The following year, he emigrated to Chelsea, with Vilas-Boas and Di Matteo, where he was proclaimed champion of the Champions League, although he did not settle in London and went on loan to Valencia and Stuttgart until he definitively consolidated at Southampton with Koeman.
Aleix Garcia (1997) became the fourth faldut, the affectionate nickname of the natives of Ulldecona, in 2015 when he made his debut at Villarreal, the quarry in which he grew up. He entered the field on the last day in the 77th minute with the 60th behind him. He didn’t have time for more because Manchester City had tied him up.
Among the City stars, he played four cup games with Pellegrini and another six (two in the Premier) with Guardiola. Until the rise of Girona was the right time for a transfer. This is his fourth season and he was under the orders of Machín, Eusebio and Míchel, with a parenthesis that took him to Belgium, Romania and Eibar.
For Romeu, always with a shaved head, the red and white colors were not new to him at all as he played more than 250 games with Southampton. This summer the door was opened for him to return to Catalonia and he took advantage of it with his partner and daughter. Physically powerful footballer, a countercultural four within the Masia, his time in England is also noticeable. In eight games, all starting, he has won more than half (42) of the melee matches he has had (82), with three yellow cards.
At 31 years old, he is a player with a lot of substance and experience who always managed to save himself with the Saints. He is a great reader outside – since Mata recommended him to Murakami – and on the field, where he stands out for his positioning and anticipation.
His game perfectly complements that of Aleix Garcia, a good builder with a lot of touch. One imposes the presence, the other puts the imagination. Garcia is the fourth footballer with the most good passes in Primera, with 562, 337 of them in the opposite field. Nobody focuses the ball more into the area, with 72, looking for the head of Bueno, Bernardo, Juanpe and Romeu, who scored in Girona’s second and last victory this season: against Valladolid on September 9.
Ulldecona CF plays this morning at 12 noon against La Sènia (local derby). At 4:15 p.m. all the fans will be in front of the television to see two falduts, leaders in Girona, looking to surprise Madrid at the Bernabeu.
