Girona and the Estadi de Montilivi closed LaLiga EA Sports this Friday with an incontestable 7-0 victory over Granada that put the finishing touch to a historic and unforgettable season for Míchel Sánchez’s team, with a hat-trick from Artem Dovbyk to position himself as the leader of the scorers with one more goal than Alexander Sorloth, waiting for Villarreal’s match this Saturday in Pamplona.
Viktor Tsygankov, with a double, Portu and Cristhian Stuani scored the other four goals in a duel that left the 25th victory for Girona, third, and the 25th defeat for Granada, nineteenth. Next year the Catalans will debut in the Champions League, in their fifth year in the First Division, and the Andalusians will play in the Second Division again.
The night ended with a Goat Soup concert, speeches and fireworks and on Sunday there will be another party, with a street party and more concerts and more speeches. The red and white team entered through the front door into the select club of teams that have reached 80 points, along with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid and Valencia, although the Ché team achieved it in a course of 42 days .
The local superiority was absolute and unappealable from the first minute of the first half, with possession percentages that exceeded 75%. Before five minutes Portu, new to the eleven because Sávio Moreira arrived this Friday from a trip to Brazil to obtain a visa to play the Copa América in the United States, missed a great pass from Miguel Gutiérrez by centimeters.
Against a totally dominated Granada, cornered in their half of the field, if not in their area, Girona came close to scoring through Yangel Herrera, Aleix García and Tsygankov. In the first half hour they resisted him, but when he found the aim he mercilessly punished the Andalusian team to the joy and enjoyment of Montilivi. The stadium, surrendered to its men, began to wave in the 23rd minute.
In the 30th minute the score fell to 1-0, in a rehearsed play following a corner kick: Viktor Tsygankov put the ball into the area and Èric headed the ball home after escaping his teammate. Montilivi celebrated the player’s fifth goal on loan from Barça with a recurring chant in recent weeks: ‘Èric, stay’.
Three minutes later came the second goal of the night, the result of the umpteenth great red-and-white collective play of the season. Miguel enabled Tsygankov and the Ukrainian beat the goalkeeper first.
There was little news about Granada. Only a long shot and a failed bicycle kick attempt by Faitout Maouassa and a deflected shot in the small area by Lucas Boyé following a pass from Sergio Rodelas.
And before the break Montilivi shouted the most anticipated goal, that of Dovbyk, immersed in the fight for the leadership of the gunners. He came within one goal of Alexander Sorloth’s 23 with a penalty: Marc Martínez correctly directed the ‘9”s shot, but was unable to deflect it due to his strength. The penalty, of course, for a knockdown, was by Ricard Sánchez on Portu. Iván Martín had left him alone with a great ball between the lines from his field.
Helping Dovbyk in his fight to be the top scorer in the league, with the victory sealed, was Girona’s great objective. In the first half’s added time, Portu failed to enable him with a death pass and at the beginning of the second half the referee annulled his second goal for offside. In the 50th minute Míchel brought on Yan Couto, Pablo Torre and Sávio to finish tilting the field and in the 54th minute Sávio enabled Tsygankov to score 4-0.
The Ukrainian left to applause right after, replaced by Cristhian Stuani in a party with Granada as a sidekick: he had started the second act better and had touched the goal with a couple of shots from Boyé, but he could barely defend himself. From Girona and Dovbyk. The ‘9’ continued chasing the goal and at the hour mark the visitors lost Facundo Pellistri for a double yellow card.
It seemed inevitable that Dovbyk would score again and he did, in the 75th minute, from a pass from Stuani and to equalize Sorloth. He wanted to beat him and Sávio ran to pick up the ball to leave it in the central circle. The Ukrainian striker then returned the favor to Stuani so that the Uruguayan scored a goal.
And it was 7-0 and Dovbyk’s hat-trick came, from a penalty committed on Sávio and in the 90th minute. It was the epilogue of a historic and sensational season that Montilivi will never forget.