Striker Valentín Castellanos scored all four goals to help Girona FC beat away Real Madrid 4-2 in round 31 of La Liga.
Final result Girona vs Real Madrid (4-2)
Scoring: Castellanos (12′, 24′, 46′, 62′) – Vinicius Junior (34′); Lucas Vazquez (85′)
Real needed to win Girona to keep their hopes up for the championship with Barca, but Castellanos’ brilliant performance ended all opportunities for Carlo Ancelotti’s teachers and students. The Argentinian striker has just played his first season in a major tournament, but has set up poker against Real Madrid, which has only happened a few times in this team’s history.
Castellanos opened the scoring with a header from close range in the 12th minute, from Miguel Gutierrez’s cross. In the 24th minute, he received a long pass from Arnau Martinez, installed Eder Militao and then dropped to shoot through the legs of goalkeeper Andriy Lunin. Early in the second half, Castellanos scored a hat-trick with a close-range cushion from Yan Couto’s cross. He completed the “poker” in the 62nd minute with a header from close range from a set position.
In all four of Castellanos’ goals, he finished in a favorable position in a comfortable position. Midfielders Militao and Antonio Rudiger could not follow the home striker closely, and goalkeeper Lunin did not impress when he replaced Thibaut Courtois with gastroenteritis. Castellanos left the field in the 72nd minute to a standing ovation from the home crowd.
According to ESPN, for the first time in 78 years a player has scored four goals against Real Madrid in a La Liga game. In all competitions, the last player to do as Castellanos was Robert Lewandowski in the semi-final first leg of the 2012-2013 Champions League, when he scored four goals to help Dortmund beat Real 4-1 at Signal Iduna Park.
Girona holds 11th place in La Liga before this match, still has the motivation to compete for the European Cup. They have their headquarters in the city of the same name, in Catalonia like Barca. Girona is one of 12 teams around the world that are owned by City Football Group, of which the most famous name is Man City. Coincidentally, Man City will be Real’s next opponent in the Champions League semi-finals. In addition, head coach Pep Guardiola of Man City and his family also have a 16% stake in … Girona.
Real scored twice against Girona thanks to the help of Vinicius Junior and Lucas Vazquez. Due to Karim Benzema’s injury, Rodrygo had to play as a central striker but he did not leave much of an impression. Real lost the sixth match in La Liga this season, the risk of being 14 points behind Barca with only seven rounds left. Failure in Girona is considered to make Real’s chances of winning the treble disappear.
Ancelotti’s army still has two arenas to strive for, the first is the final of the King’s Cup with Osasuna on the evening of May 6. After that, they played two rounds of the Champions League semi-final with Man City, to compete for the final.
List of matches Girona vs Real Madrid
Girona: Gazzaniga; Arnau, Santi Bueno, Juanpe, Miguel (Hernandez 89); Oriol Romeu, Yan Couto, Ivan Martin (Artero 91); Tsygankov (Fernandez 72), Riquelme (Reinier 89), Taty Castellanos (Stuani 72).
Real: Lunin; Carvajal (Vazquez 79), Rudiger, Militao, Nacho (Camavinga 52); Modric (Tchouameni 63), Kroos, Valverde; Asensio, Rodrygo (Diaz 79), Vinicus.