With 35-time time Spanish La Liga champions Real Madrid beating Sevilla FC 1-0 via Luka Modrić’s winner in the 81st minute and opening an 8-point lead at the top of the Spanish top-flight football, Girona FC, also known as Blanquivermells, knew that they cannot afford to drop points in their own Matchday 26 league encounter against Rayo Vallecano at home yesterday. Fortunately, the Blanquivermells fairytale run continued to take place in La Liga, as Míchel’s men comfortably beat their visitors with a 3-0 score line at Montilivi, leapfrogging Barcelona in their return to the second place of the league table and now trailing the leaders Los Blancos only by 6 points as a result.
Sávio’s Late Late Brace Complemented Tsyhankov’s Opener in Blanquivermells’s Triumph
The league clash between Girona FC and Rayo Vallecano was an interesting one for the manager at Blanquivermells Míchel. This is because the 48-year-old Madrid-born Spaniard had his professional youth career in football at the academy of Rayo Vallecano, and not only did he go on to represent the senior side for more than one and a half decades, he also became the head coach of both the youth and senior teams in multiple stints before his appointment as the Blanquivermells manager.
The match at Montilivi had an unfruitful first 50 minutes, until the home team finally drew first blood in the 52nd minute, courtesy of Viktor Tsyhankov. The 26-year-old Ukrainian winger was benefited from Miguel Gutiérrez, who broke away into the penalty box via a long ball and set him up with a subsequent delivery just inside the dangerous zone. Without hesitation of any sorts, Tsyhankov then hit the ball first time, finding the bottom right corner with his left foot as a result. Rayo Vallecano tried hard to level things up in the remainder of the game, but marching orders given to Pep Chavarría forced the visitors to give up on their hopes of making things all square again.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Blanquivermells’s exploitations on the difference in numbers of players finally bore fruits in the stoppage time of the second half, with a brace coming from 19-year-old Brazilian attacker Sávio. The young footballer, who made his professional debut in senior football at the age of 16, showed mesmerising skills in beating several Rayo Vallecano players inside the penalty box, before he found the back of the net in similar fashion as Tsyhankov did for the first goal. The player on loan at Blanquivermells then added the icing on the cake by squeezing a shot past Stole Dimitrievski from an almost impossible angle right at the death, leading Blanquivermells to win the game 3-0.
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Sávio vs Rayo Vallecano:
2 Goals
37 Touches
14 Accurate Passes
78% Pass Accuracy
8 Ground Duels Won
4 Successful Dribbles
2 Tackles
2 Interceptions
2 Shots On Target
2 Accurate Long Balls
1 Key PassComing soon to #ManCity… 🇧🇷😏 pic.twitter.com/UL4s6LqWRV
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) February 26, 2024
Blanquivermells Regained the Status of the Best-Scoring Spanish La Liga Team
With their 3-0 ecstatic showing versus Rayo Vallecano, Girona FC not only jumped over Barcelona to the second spot at the summit of the Spanish La Liga, but Blanquivermells also returned to being the Spanish top-flight football side that scored the most goals in the league thus far at 57 goals. Both Spanish and European club football giants Barcelona and Real Madrid are currently one and three goals adrift Blanquivermells in terms of the number of goals netted in the Spanish La Liga after 26 matches played in the 2023/2024 campaign respectively.
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Míchel on Blanquivermells’s 18th League Win in 2023/2024: “I Have to Be Happier with the Defensive Aspect Than the Attack.”
Míchel was upbeat about Blanquivermells‘s performance versus Rayo Vallecano at home. The 48-year-old Spanish remarked the importance of regaining the title of the best-scoring team in Spanish club football at the moment: “We have become the highest-scoring team in the league again. We have surpassed Barcelona by one goal, which we also reminded the players of today. We are a team that wants to take the initiative, that wants to go towards the opponent’s goal, that has the mentality to be the aggressors with the ball and be offensive and be the best team in the league in terms of goal. That makes us happy again and that is very important for me.”
The Blanquivermells manager went further by telling the press it was the defensive presence, instead of the offensive power, that ultimately paved way to Girona FC’s 3-0 resounding victory in the league last night. “Whenever we play a game, we have the feeling of where the team’s performance needs to go. Today, I think I have to be happier with the defensive aspect than the attack. I have not reviewed the match yet, but my feeling today is that the team was better defensively than offensively. We only improved as an attacking team when the game opened up and they were left with one less player.”
Míchel did not forget to talk about Girona FC’s current status in the league table with only 12 games remaining in the 2023/2024 . “The scoring does not reflect what the match was like, because it was evenly matched. However, I’m glad that we have regained second place. We are once again the top scorers in LaLiga. These are data we like and make us want to remain the same until the end of the season,” said the man who have also played and managed Rayo Vallecano at youth and senior levels back in the past.
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