In the run-up to the match the spotlight was on other players, but in the end one of the main protagonists, perhaps the most decisive in Girona’s victory against Barça, was a Miguel Gutiérrez who was undetectable by the Barcelona defensive structure, especially in the first half. which culminated with a superb goal.
“I hit him with my toe, I have seen it clearly,” explained the 22-year-old from Madrid, about a goal built with a great drive to the heart of the area that ended with a powerful shot near the right corner of the goal defended by Iñaki Grief. It was his third goal in the First Division and his first goal scorer this season.
The performance against Barça has given the media springboard to the excellent season that he is having in Montilivi, becoming master of the left wing alongside Sávio. At Girona he was already a fixture in Míchel’s starting eleven during his first year with the Catalans the previous season and this season he has increased his performance to become one of the fittest full-backs in the Spanish championship, decisive in the offensive field and its defensive fundamentals becoming more and more solid.
“We’re going to see how far we get. We’re doing things well, for now. We have to continue working as we have been up to now. Of course we believe it,” Pinto explained after the final whistle in Montjuïc about the possibility of singing the alirón . If we continue in this impeccable line of play and results, the main rival to lift the champion trophy will be Real Madrid, the club where the Madrid native was trained and which still retains 50% of his rights.
In the Madrid club he debuted in the first team against Cádiz on March 21, 2021, at the age of 19, under the guidance of coach Zinédine Zidane. Despite enjoying minutes in the final stretch of the 2020-21 season, the following season did not have continuity with Carlo Ancelotii on the bench and he returned to the Castilla dynamic.
Last summer he left the Chamartín entity in search of minutes and Míchel convinced him to join a newly promoted team thanks to the attractive football proposal of Girona. Madrid, however, did not want to completely let a defender with great potential escape and only sold half of his rights, a policy that has already been followed with other young players such as Fran García, also a left back who is season has returned to the Bernabéu.
Madrid could recover their youth player for 8 million euros, although the defender now only thinks about enjoying the Girona dream. The possible return to the Spanish capital is still far away for a Gutiérrez who has his feet on the ground. “I don’t think I’m a First Class footballer. I’m just another kid. I take it very normally. A very calm kid, very transparent, who doesn’t really like to get into trouble,” he said at the end of last season in an interview. for Relevo the defender, who “did not plan to be a footballer when he grew up.” His plan was to work on something related to sports thanks to his INEF studies, completed this year.
Gutiérrez, who in Madrid had Marcelo as a reference, has not lost the habit of meeting his childhood friends to go talk in a parking lot or see how they have “a pizza or a kebab” for dinner (he chooses a healthier option ). A life without ostentation even now that his name has reached the ears of elite football clubs.
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