Girona managed to win the second game of the season after beating Valladolid 2-1 thanks to a goal from Oriol Romeu two minutes from time. The Girona team had already taken the lead in the first half through Reinier, but the Castilians leveled with a great goal from Monchu.
Happy with the performance that his men offered in Mallorca, from where the team took a point and in the words of Míchel himself “it would have been unfair to lose”, the coach decided to repeat eleven with Arnau starting second ahead of Yan Couto and the Reinier’s choice to accompany the undisputed Roro Riquelme and Taty Castellanos in attack. However, at the last minute he was forced to make a substitution and bring in Bernardo due to David López’s injury during the warm-up.
Nor was Pacheta in better luck, who saw how Sergi Guardiola could not continue when only 6 minutes had been played and Weissman took his place.
After this rough start, Girona began to take control of the game and Oriol Romeu warned Valladolid with a header from a corner kick by Aleix Garcia, which Asenjo deflected over the crossbar. It was just afterwards when Aleix Garcia himself, on this occasion of play and after a magnificent drive, assisted Reinier so that with the toe of his boot he scored the first goal.
The locals had the score in their favor and the game was fully controlled, but it didn’t last long because before the break Valladolid equalized until then almost inoperative in attack. It was precisely a former Girona player, Monchu, who took advantage of the fact that the Catalan defense gave him too many meters outside the area, to launch a powerful shot from a long distance that surprised Juan Carlos and scored a goal that he did not celebrate due to his past in Montilivi.
The people from Girona accused him and finished the first part groggy.
After passing through the changing rooms, the script remained the same and the Castilians came out better.
Girona tried to shake this dominance with another shot from distance, the work of an Aleix Garcia who yesterday was once again one of the best. But it was a mirage and Michel began to move the bench. He first sat down a central defender, Bernardo, and brought out a midfielder like Samu Saiz to change the system and go from a defense of three central defenders and two lanes to a clear 4-2-3-1.
The movement of pieces worked and Girona recovered the lost control, a fact that also translated into scoring chances. Santi Bueno finished off a center from the left too forcefully and minutes later Taty Castellanos did it with his head too wide. The Argentine striker, tireless fighter at the point of attack, had another almost consecutive but the header went over the crossbar.
And when everything indicated that there would be a distribution of points, in the 88th minute, Oriol Romeu, with a header, also assisted with a header by Santi Bueno after Aleix Garcia’s umpteenth cross, made it 2-1 in the end and the 3 points remained in Montilivi.
Girona: Juan Carlos, Juanpe, Santi Bueno, Bernardo (Manu Vallejo 59), Arnau Martínez (Toni Villa 74), Aleix García, Oriol Romeu, Miguel Gutiérrez, Riquelme (Samu Saiz 59), Reinier (Yan Couto 74) and Taty Castellano (Javi Hernandez 92).
Coach: Michel Sanchez
Valladolid: Asenjo, Luis Pérez (Iván Fresneda 28), Joaquín Fernández, Javi Sánchez, Olaza, Roque Mesa, Monchu, Kike Pérez (Aguado 75); Gonzalo Plata (Kenedy 75), Anuar (Óscar Plano 46) and Sergi Guardiola (Weissman 6).
Trainer: The pack
Referee: Soto Grado (Rioja school).
Cards: Yellow to Anuar and Roque Mesa from Valladolid
Stadium: Montilivi, 10,053 spectators.
Goals: 1-0 Reinier (21), 1-1 Monchu (38), 2-1 Oriol Romeu (88).
