Girona stayed out of place

Last weekend left at the top of the Spanish championship perhaps the main sensation of the entire European football season, Girona, which defeated Sevilla 5:1 thanks, among other things, to Artem Dovbik’s “sprint” hat-trick. But Real did not let her go far ahead, almost miraculously defeating the outsider Almeria 3:2.

The next round of the Spanish Championship was crowned with very extraordinary matches. First of all, we are, of course, talking about the match involving Real Madrid.

The Madrid team hosted Almeria, which is in 20th place, that is, nowhere lower, in the standings and has a measly six points. The temptation to predict that she would become an easy prey for the grandee was great, but reality radically diverged from expectations.

It’s unlikely that anyone could imagine what the plot of this match would be. And in it, the guests, having scored in the first minute, led by the break with a score of 2:0. And the almost threefold advantage in ball possession did not help Real at all.

It took a real miracle for him to get out. However, the Almeria players used other terms to explain what happened. Well, like the one boldly used by midfielder Gonzalo Melero in an interview with DAZN, who said that his team was “robbed.” And it must be admitted that the guests had reasons for such a violent and direct expression of emotions.

Real reduced the gap just over ten minutes after the break with a penalty converted by Jude Bellingham. And he was appointed after watching VAR. She did not pay attention to the violation in the early stage of the attack by Madrid’s Antonio Rudiger, but did not miss the fact that in the Almeria penalty area the ball slightly touched the hand of her footballer Kaika.

The visitors soon decided to celebrate their third goal, confident that Sergio Arribas scored it in full accordance with the rules. But no, VAR intervened again, and she saw that shortly before Arribas hit his partner Dion Lopi committed a foul. At the same time, the Almeria players believed that the situation was at best “borderline” – either a violation or not.

Finally, the most scandalous episode was the one in which Real Madrid restored the balance. Referee Francisco Maeso first decisively canceled Vinicius’ goal, having no doubt, like everyone who was worried about Almeria, that he played along with his hand. However, the referee wanted to play it safe and see the moment on video. And when he saw it, he suddenly sent his decision to the scrapheap, counting the goal and provoking a storm of indignation not only from representatives of the injured party, but also from neutral observers. Let’s say that several former Spanish referees were surprised at the effectiveness with which VAR helped Real Madrid.

His coach Carlo Ancelotti, by the way, admitted that the game was “strange.” True, he had in mind, of course, not Maeso’s actions, but her character, caused, in Ancelotti’s opinion, by the fatigue of the Madrid players, for whom everything ended quite happily. The victory was brought to them by a lunge in the ninth minute of stoppage time with a discount from Jude Bellingham on Dani Carvajal, who shot the goal of the unfortunate Almeria.

This crazy match kept Real Madrid in the lead in terms of lost points, but did not bring the lead in terms of points gained. According to them, Girona, which still does not want to give up its position, is still ahead of it in points, which has already been predicted a quick fall a hundred times during the current championship. No, it doesn’t fall, and on Sunday it smashed the currently problematic Seville to smithereens at home.

The main event of this match was, naturally, the hat-trick of Ukrainian forward Artem Dovbik, which essentially destroyed the guests. It fit in seven minutes – from the 13th to the 19th: a phenomenal rate of fire. After this feat, Dovbik, who a year ago was not considered a striker even close to the elite level, led the championship scoring race with Bellingham (both had 14 goals each), and also became one of the heroes of The Guardian’s column dedicated to transfer insiders . The publication reported that, according to its data, Chelsea are interested in the striker, ready to buy him within the January window.

Alexey Dospehov