It had to be a former Girona player, and a native of Girona, who stabbed Girona in the back in Oviedo. Ilyas Chaira punished Míchel's men for their abysmal performance, deservedly suffering their first defeat of 2026 against the bottom-placed team in La Liga (1-0). Anyone who thought the Rojiblancos' objective would be anything more than staying up is sorely mistaken. Reaching 42 points is the only goal. For now, they have 25.

It was a day marked in red. They couldn't afford to let it slip. And Girona did just that, even though they came close to a magical comeback. Míchel's team wasted almost an hour of play, exploited by a direct rival for survival, Oviedo, to build a lead that seemed definitive. With the score at 2-0, however, a double from Stuani and a superb goal from Ounahi made it 3-2. Just as Montilivi was dancing, in the final play, in the 97th minute, David Carmo equalized. It's the second consecutive matchday in which Girona has dropped points in added time, five in total, following Araujo's goal in last week's Catalan derby.

Espanyol's visit to Oviedo started with a historic strike of a handful of seconds in response to the Villarreal-Barça La Liga match to be played in Miami. A "symbolic protest" initiated by the First Division captains and supported by the Spanish Footballers' Association (AFE) was not broadcast on television. The association censored it: for almost half a minute, the match broadcast showed aerial images of Carlos Tartiere, not the game.

Barça remains comfortable when it comes to coming back, and that's what he did against Oviedo (1-3) With goals from Eric Garcia, Lewandowski, and Araujo, after a serious error by Joan Garcia cost Antonio Reina an own goal. Here are some quick notes from the match:

"It was an earthquake, a shock, a tremendous reality check," explains journalist Sergio Cortina, reliving Oviedo's fall: from the First and even European divisions to the Third, to being one inch away from disappearing. This Thursday, the Asturian team hosts Barça again, 25 seasons after the last two matches: a 2-3 win for Barça at the Tartiere and a 0-1 loss for Asturias at the Camp Nou, with Carles Rexach in the dugout and Richard Dutruel in goal. Other times. That ordeal led Oviedo to play against teams from neighborhoods in the city or surrounding towns, even on dirt fields turned into mudflats. In 2013, they lost 4-1 to Sporting Gijón's reserve team. In 2014, by 1 to 4.

Halfway between Logroño, Vitoria, San Sebastián, and Bilbao lies Miranda de Ebro, a town of just over 35,000 inhabitants renowned for its industrial center—now in decline—and communications hub, especially for rail. Children attend school wearing the shirt of the town's team, Mirandés, not Barça or Real Madrid. Historically, it has straddled the Third Division and Second B, which is 90 minutes away from promotion to the Liga. end of the play-off, will achieve this for the first time in its nearly hundred years of existence, making it one of the smallest teams to reach the Spanish football elite. "It's a David versus Goliath story. With one of the lowest budgets in the division, it's very close to promotion to the First Division, having competed against Granada, Almería, and Racing de Santander, teams from large cities that represent provincial capitals. It's very big," says Pablo Infante, the most famous player in the club's history.