Under pressure, Girona once again showed astonishing resources to remain glued to the coattails of Aurélien Tchouameni’s teammates, after having defeated, at the end of the suspense, Atlético Madrid (4-3). The two teams went blow for blow during a crazy game, launched by Catalans captain Valery, author of a superb curling shot in the second minute.
Alvaro Morata, in great form on Wednesday, responded (15th) before the Brazilian Savio (27th) and the Dutchman Daley Blind (39th) gave Girona a two-goal lead. But Morata reduced the gap before the break (44th) then equalized with a nice dive (3-3, 54th), well served twice by the Argentinian Rodrigo De Paul. A remarkable hat-trick for the La Roja scorer.
The two teams neutralized each other during a closed end to the match, until Ivan Martin sent a powerful and sudden strike lodged in the top corner of Jan Oblak, helpless, at the start of added time ( 90th 1). Enough to knock out Atléti. Active, Antoine Griezmann missed a face-to-face and remained stuck at 173 goals in the Rojiblanco jersey. he will still have to wait to surpass Luis Aragones’ record mark.
At the same time, Betis (7th) were surprised on the pitch of Celta Vigo (18th) 2-1. In a duel between poorly ranked players, Granada won their second match of the season against Cadiz, their first success since the end of August. But with 11 points, the Andalusian club remains five lengths from 17th place, the first non-relegation spot, occupied by Celta Vigo. Thursday, Barça (4th, 38 pts), traveling to Las Palmas, can take third place and finish the first leg on the podium.