Girona signs the feat and gets into the final of the ‘play-off’ against Tenerife

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A feat, there is no other word. A monumental goal Borgia to open the path of hope. Some miraculous saves by Juan Carlos to support Girona when he was stunned. And in extra time came the goal of Stuaniwho else!, to lead the team of Michelle to play the final of the play-off for promotion to the First Division. Tenerife awaits him, the last obstacle to return to the aristocracy of Spanish football. On Saturday the 11th in Montilivi and on Sunday the 19th at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López.

But in Ipurúa the memory of a team that never gave up, capable of overcoming the 0-1 conceded in Montilivi last Thursday, will remain forever. The memory of a moving team, full of emotion. At the beginning of the game (just 49 seconds) he scored Borgia with a wonderful right hand. At the start of extra time, and with endless suspense until the VAR authorized it, came that saving header from Stuani. “The goal is not mine, the goal belongs to my teammates, to all the people who came here and to the people who have believed in us,” said the Uruguayan.

Girona started the second half well, peeking dangerously into the Eibar area. Even connecting the two full-backs (Valery, the left-hander, with a superb cross headed by Arnau, the right-hander, frustrated by a great save by Cantero) in such a way that he seemed to have ruled the match.

The suffering of the second half

In Ipurúa, no matter how well you play, and Michel’s team did it that way, you can never rest easy. If not, ask Juan Carlos, the Girona goalkeeper. Up to four practically consecutive corner kicks were chained for the set of Gaizka Garitano. Four corners in just three minutes. And each one of them was a source of anguish. Where football did not reach with the ball in motion, danger appeared in those poisoned set pieces.

And the Catalan domain vanished in that tiny stadium transformed into a torture rack for any visiting team. the legs of Nahuel, decisive in sustaining Girona’s pressure in the first hour of the duel, were no longer enough to run five meters in a row. Eibar, meanwhile, to their own. To the old football, as was seen in extra time, accumulating strikers and more strikers. Without any goal.

Hanging ball and an army of players dressed in azulgrana fighting to achieve the goal that would allow them to continue fighting to be in the First Division next year. And in the middle of a demonstration of soccer players in the Juan Carlos area, between Girona defenses and almost all of Eibar, the head of Bernard, a center that looked like a true colossus. And it was.

The miraculous hands of Juan Carlos

Neither the changes of Michel (Stuani by Nahuel and Jairo by Iván Martín) they revived their team, which was getting bigger and bigger. Gaizka Garitano also intervened to give Eibar more resources. More than the traditional ones (corners and lateral fouls) so as not to leave the Juan Carlos. And the goalkeeper had two actions as superb and spectacular as the goal Aketxe in Montilivi or the one in Borja Garcia in Ipurua. They attacked him from all sides.

When it wasn’t an exquisite header from Gustavo Blanco, felinely repelled with his right hand, the treacherous back of Valery, his partner, appeared to force him to show that his reflexes were as endless as they were valuable. Two play-off stops. Two saves as decisive as that providential crossbar for Girona, which spat out the powerful right hand of Stoichkov.

Not only did he have the help of the wood, but the ball fell violently on the same goal line, as the subsequent review of the VAR showed, increasing, even more, the drama that hung over the Catalan goal. The goalkeeper shook, all of Girona shook, even the Cathedral.

Stuani’s blessed head

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When the fourth official indicated that there was five more minutes of added time, the nerves, tons of nerves consumed both teams. A goal put Eibar in the First Division. A goal placed Girona in the First Division. And since no one scored, the extension came. As soon as it started, Stuani’s goal came, which needed more than three minutes to be checked by the technology. Silence filled Ipurúa, altered by the cries of the Girona fans, until the determined lines from a small room in the sports city of Las Rozas restored hope.

That blessed head of the Uruguayan. This Girona would never be understood without that head that knew how to get into a labyrinth of Eibar defenses, who suddenly abandoned their position thinking that he was offside. Well no. He wasn’t because Sergio Álvarez’s foot enabled Stuani, the most ready to take advantage of another header, in this previous case by Juanpe. Again, a stopped ball. The Eibar formula transferred, however, to the key to the Girona treasure. Whimsical football. Capricious and blessed because the heroic exercise of Michel’s team was rewarded with an unforgettable feat.

The card of Eibar – Girona (0-2)

Eibar: Cantero, Correa, Venancio, Chema, Arbilla, Sergio Álvarez, Edu Expósito, Corpas, Aketxe, Stoichkov and Blanco.

Substitutions: Javier Muñoz for Aketxe (m. 77); Rahmani by Corpas (d. 77); Sun for Arbilla (m. 100); Toño by Arbilla (m. 100); Quique by Stoichkov (d. 106); F. Llorente for Blanco (m. 106)

Coach: Gaizka Garitano.

Girona: Juan Carlos, Bueno, Bernardo, Juanpe, Arnau, Valery, Pol Lozano, Iván Martín, Borja García, Baena and Nahuel Bustos.

Changes: Aleix García for Borja García (m. 46); Jairo by Iván Martín (d. 73); Stuani by Nahuel Bustos (d. 73); Víctor Sánchez for Pol Lozano (m. 87): Samu Saiz for Baena (m. 90); Terrats by Valery (d. 107).

Coach: Michelle

Goals: 0-1, Borja García (m. 1); 0-2, Stuani (d. 91)

Referee: Pulido Santana (Canary)

Yellow cards: Sergio Álvarez (m. 27); Juanpe (d. 29); Corpas (d. 48); Arnau (d. 90); Juan Carlos (d. 102); Stuani (d. 119).

Stadium: Ipurua



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