Girona comes out scalded (and the heat wave had nothing to do with it)

GironaEveryone looked to the sky, worried about the heat in Montilivi, and everyone stopped looking at the pitch, where the real problem lay for a Girona side that started the season in a shaky fashion, thrashed without even having time to say a word. Girona, with all their reinforcements split between the bench and the presidential box, resigned in a first half marred by the errors of goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, who gave away a goal and was sent off for a penalty. With their pockets empty of arguments and no shots on goal, Rayo Vallecano's 0-3 victory proved short-lived. The pride of the only Girona player, Joel Roca, allowed them to close the gap (1-3), but if no important signings arrive, it will be hard to recover their joy.

Everything the club did right in the stands, they did wrong on the pitch. Girona didn't skimp on precautions in the face of heat wave alerts and the repetitive No of the League to change the schedule. When the match started, the temperature dropped below 35 degrees, with a feeling of higher humidity. The club anticipated the scares and set up three additional spaces for dispensing drinks, hired more staff to improve service, and distributed 8,000 caps and 15,000 bottles of water to those in attendance, who almost filled the stadium. In this sense, the work was impeccable, and there were no incidents.

But in terms of securing points, the suspense is unquestionable, and the red-and-white team continued in the same vein (or worse) as at the end of last season. Míchel was forced to field Solís, who is likely to leave, and Miovski, who was given the opportunity to start due to Stuani's personal situation, having recently lost his father. Neither the Colombian nor the Macedonian gave any reason to believe in them. In fact, the Madrid coach, with the score at 2-0 and Gazzaniga sent off, preferred to substitute Miovski, despite being without strikers. He saw it as that serious.

A chain of errors

The night was particularly dark for the goalkeeper, who blew a match in the 0-1 scoreline with a mistake in the ball movement, which was repeated in the penalty that led to the 0-3. The blame wasn't entirely his, as the center-backs transmit a contagious insecurity whenever they have to try to build, and they reproduce the errors that so plagued Girona last season. David López in the 0-1 goal and Krejcí in the 0-2 goal didn't contribute to Gazzaniga's peaceful life; in fact, it was quite the opposite.

With all the fish sold, the only note of optimism was the fine goal from countryman Joel Roca, who saw his good preseason rewarded with a starting spot. Míchel gave minutes to the new players, who tried to please, with quality technical gestures and, above all, not holding back a drop of sweat. The heat, by then, was already bearable. What wasn't so much was the image of a Girona side that is obliged to improve.