Girona makes life a little more difficult for Espanyol after beating them in Montilivi thanks to goals from Arnau and Stuani, from a penalty, two minutes from time. Braithwaite had previously equalized the game for the visitors.
With this defeat, the blue and whites have now gone 4 games without scoring, –they had accumulated three before the break– and, in addition, they see how one of the rivals in this fight for permanence, Girona, moves away by seven points.
The locals, who were superior in most of the game, came onto the pitch with some surprises in the eleven, above all due to the ownership of Javi Hernández on the left side, leaving Miguel on the bench, and the entry of Ivan MartÃn on Riquelme. At Espanyol, on the other hand, the pieces lined up by Diego MartÃnez were more predictable, taking into account the loss of full-back Brian Oliván due to injury and center-back Cabrera due to suspension. However, the change in the tactical drawing was surprising, abandoning the traditional 4-3-3 and starting to play with a 4-2-3-1 through the double pivot formed by Vini Souza and Gragera. In addition, Diego MartÃnez also changed the position of Oscar Gil, who played with a different leg, in the left lane, where he was especially busy, especially at the beginning, due to the constant attacks of an always dangerous Tsygankov.
Despite the greater control of the people from Girona, who had the noticeable loss of Aleix Garcia, the truth is that neither one nor the other managed to reach the rival goal with excessive danger until half an hour later, another play by the right wing emerged from the The Ukrainian’s boots ended with a very soft shot from Taty Castellanos that Pacheco saved without much difficulty. The same Argentine striker had another shot moments later, after beating Sergi Gómez, but this time he kicked by scrubbing the post.
With this scenario, Espanyol tried to advance lines although they still could not find either Braithwaite or his man-goal, Joselu, who had disappeared throughout the game. And as a consequence of that, Tsygankov knew how to take advantage of the spaces that the blue and whites left behind even though he crashed the ball into the side of the net when half Montilivi was singing the goal. A stand that starred in several incidents and some small disputes throughout the match between the two fans and that ended with the expulsion of more than one fan.
And with this climate the second part started, which is when, finally, the scoring was opened. Arnau picked up a rebound from the Espanyol defense to control the ball and, without letting it fall, he launched a shot from the corner of the left area to do justice to what had been seen so far.
But the local euphoria soon turned into malaise. On the one hand, by the referee. And it is that Ortiz Arias drove them crazy for a series of fouls that he did not consider and that ended with the expulsion of Reinier for protesting while he warmed up from the band. And on the other, because Espanyol knew how to take advantage of that to score the equalizing goal on one of the few occasions he had. Braithwaite picked up a ball off the hook with his head to get ahead of a David López, until then immeasurable, and beat Gazzaniga.
Things got even hotter when Sergi Gómez entered Taty Castellanos from behind and the referee only showed him the yellow card. Subsequently, however, the action was reviewed by VAR and Espanyol had to play the last few minutes outnumbered. An advantage from which Girona also knew how to take advantage by forcing a rigorous penalty, which Stuani -who had just entered the field of play- converted to give them victory.
In the added time, lasting 9 minutes, and desperately, Diego MartÃnez replaced Denis Suárez, who had entered just a few minutes ago, to add more men in attack like Nico Melamed, unable to prevent the 3 points from remaining in Montilivi.
Consult all the results of the Santander League.
Girona FC: Gazzaniga; Arnau, Santi Bueno, David López, Javi Hernández (Miguel, min. 77); Romeu; Tsygankov, Borja GarcÃa, Iván MartÃn (Stuani, min. 85), Toni Villa (Riquelme, min. 69); and Castellanos.
RCD Espanyol: Pacheco; Rubén, César Montes, Sergi Gómez, Óscar Gil (Pierre Gabriel, min. 93); Gragera (Denis Suárez, min. 62, Nico Melamed, min. 93), Vini de Souza; Puado (Calero, min. 85), Sergi Darder, Braithwaite (Keidi Bare, min. 86); and Joselu.
Goals: 1-0, min. 53: Arnau. 1-1 min. 74: Braithwaite. 2-1 min. 88: Stuani, penalty.
Referee: Ortiz Arias (Madrid committee). He admonished the locals Romeu (min. 24), Iván MartÃn (min. 35), Castellanos (min. 71) and Arnau (min. 93), and the visitors Denis Suárez (min. 83) and Calero (min. 87) . He sent off, with a direct red card, the local Reinier (min. 71) and the visitor Sergi Gómez (min. 83).
Incidents: Match of the twenty-seventh day of LaLiga Santander played at the Estadi Municipal de Montilivi before 12,841 fans.
