Robert Lewandowski looked skyward, then at the ball at the penalty spot, then at Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.
The Barcelona striker took three deep breaths, before stuttering his momentum and scoring as Gazzaniga dived the wrong way. He joined his teammates to celebrate in front of the traveling support. Barca led 2-1 and looked good in a crucial match for their updated goal for the season – finishing second behind Real Madrid.
After the restart, they left in good spirits. They were at the top and Girona struggled to match them. It seemed that this article would write itself: that Barça would avenge the damaging defeat inflicted on their Catalan neighbors in December. Madrid would have to wait at least one more week to regain their La Liga crown.
Instead, the movie we were watching went from V for Vendetta to Anatomy of a Fall in just 10 minutes.
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First, Sergi Roberto’s hands went straight to his head after a misplaced pass drifted into the path of La Liga’s top scorer Artem Dovbyk. The Ukrainian quickly found Portu – who had just entered – to equalize. Barça was suddenly in full spiral. The bloodshed began.
Miguel Gutierrez, who had endured a torrid afternoon chasing Lamine Yamal, scored the third for Girona almost immediately afterwards. Seven minutes later, Portu got another. Just under 10 minutes of madness completely changed the match – and the score could have been much worse for Barça.
Girona missed a series of good chances in the final quarter of an hour, when it was clear there would be no comeback for Barca. After Girona’s fourth goal, some players stood with their hands on their hips and looked at the sky in a defeatist pose. Others had blank looks. On the Barça bench, Marcos Alonso yawned.
The stands were vibrating. Girona’s victory sealed qualification for the Champions League for the first time in their history, a remarkable achievement for a club with a season budget of €60 million (£51.5 million; 64.6 million dollars), compared to 600 million euros for Madrid and 500 million euros for Barça.
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The mood at Barca couldn’t be more different, as Girona leapfrogged them into second place in La Liga.
This was an opportunity for Barca to take positive steps, now that Xavi remains as coach. Second place is not only important for optics: it would also guarantee around 6 million euros in prize money for participation in next year’s Supercopa de Espana. It is an important source of funding for the cash-strapped club.
It was also meant as a counterpoint to Girona’s 4-2 win at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in late 2023. That match hurt Barca and Xavi – the way they were defeated as much as the result itself . Girona beat Barca at their own game, with a style of play that many fans and club executives aspire to.
Xavi’s words after that match – saying Barcelona had played the better game, despite all evidence to the contrary – had not gone down well either.
The context of the December defeat helps explain what happened at the end of the match on Saturday. Barcelona players collapsed. Marc-Andre ter Stegen remained pensive for a few minutes under his crossbar. He helped ensure the defeat did not become even more embarrassing with a superb save in the final minutes, while Jules Koundé was also decisive with a clearance off the line.
The goalkeeper walked towards the Barça supporters, discouraged, without daring to look at them while applauding their efforts. Then he went straight into the tunnel, giving further insight into his state of mind.
On the pitch, Girona players were celebrating wildly when the first bars of the Champions League anthem began to ring out. And there was another novelty: before Saturday, no Catalan team had beaten Barcelona twice in a league season since Espanyol in the 1941-42 campaign.
Girona are celebrating their place in next year’s Champions League with their anthem. They played in the second division two years ago. pic.twitter.com/QYgWMWhT8N
– Laia Cervello Herrero (@Laia_Cervello) May 4, 2024
In the VIP seats, Barça president Joan Laporta reacted angrily. According to media reports, he shouted: “This can’t be!” » under the general direction of sports director Deco and vice-president Rafa Yuste.
The faces of the players marching through the mixed zone to the Barça team bus told a similar story. Roberto looked particularly shaken, aware that his mistake had triggered disaster.
“We gave the match away,” Xavi finally said in his post-match press conference. The principal had taken longer than usual to come out and speak.
“This already happened to us in the two matches against Real Madrid, against Girona and against Paris Saint-Germain. It’s very difficult to compete like this, we have to improve a lot.
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“I want to think positively, that this is part of the immaturity of many players, that they have to fail to improve – but I am very sad and very disappointed. Sadder than after the first match in Montjuic.
As fate would have it, Barcelona won the league title last season in a Catalan derby, at the home of Espanyol. This season, they returned the title to Madrid among their ascendant neighbors to the north.
It felt like an incomprehensible defeat, but it was Barça’s season in microcosm: a team always capable of showing its best and worst teams in the same match.
(Top photo: Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images)