Girona suffered its first defeat of the season against Real Madrid. The goals from Joselu and Tchouaméni in the first 20 minutes left the team knocked out, as the coach of the Girona team Míchel recognized: “We entered very well and then when Madrid came out of our pressure it was difficult for us to recover the ball.” The coach praised his players and highlighted the strength of the rival in front of them: “I told them that it was the first defeat of the season and that I was proud of the performance. That the League continues and we have to continue growing as a team. Today they dealt us a pretty strong blow but the rival was Real Madrid. It puts us in our place. We are a team with a fairly low budget and our goal is to remain in the First Division for another year, Real Madrid is a world-class team.”
Míchel also acknowledged that having played during the week hindered his men’s performance: “We have had less than 72 hours to prepare for a match against Real Madrdid. There will be teams in the Premier that do not have the leg that this team has. The first 5 minutes that we pushed it seemed like everything was going well, but when they gained possession from us we experienced situations that were very frustrating.”
The Girona coach explained that despite the load of minutes, he preferred to bet on giving continuity to the same players: “We have not been able to prepare the game as we would like, but I wanted to go with everything. If you make rotations you lose the connections between the players. Maybe we lacked a little freshness because of that.”
Míchel also referred to the most controversial play of the match, Nacho’s tough tackle, with the score at 0-3 and in added time, which caused Portu’s injury, who had to leave the field on a stretcher and by the that the Madrid player was sent off. “It’s a very tough entrance. “It doesn’t matter, especially with a 0-3 score and with one minute remaining,” explained the coach of the Girona team, who spoke with Ancelotti after that action and explained what the Italian coach told him: “Ancelotti is a star, a gentleman. He told me that he did not understand Nacho’s action with a 0-3, that he had surprised us a lot and he asked us for forgiveness.
Cristhian Stuani also spoke about this action: “Nacho is a great footballer but it is an unnecessary action.” The Girona footballer did not want to give more details about the brawl that occurred while Portu was being taken off on a stretcher: “I have tried to defend my teammate, but these are things that happen on the field and stay there on the field.” And I wish him a speedy recovery: “Let’s hope it’s nothing because we need it.”
Although the truth is that “it doesn’t look good right now,” Míchel acknowledged after the game: “The doctors say it’s the ankle and hip. They have to do tests,” he said as the soccer player was on his way to the hospital.
Regarding the match, Stuani acknowledged that conceding two goals so soon was a hardship from which they did not know how to recover: “We had two great chances to take the lead. We already know that Madrid can score against you at any moment and that goal has hurt us a lot. The team disconnected and the second made the game very difficult for us.”
He also wanted to thank the public for their support on one of the big days in Montilivi: “The run-up has been a party, they have been up to the task and have been encouraging us. We try to make them happy, we regret not having played the game we would have wanted,” he acknowledged.
