As a result of Sunday’s 1-1 tie with Girona at Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid dropped to second place in La Liga a point behind Barcelona. After a scoreless first half, Vinicius Jr of Real scored in the 70th minute but a penalty kick from Cristhian Stuani tied the game 10 minutes later.
In a scoreless first half, both teams had good opportunities, but it was Real’s Rodrygo who was leading the attack in place of Karim Benzema whose shot hit the post. In the other half, Girona’s captain Valery Fernandez headed narrowly wide, while Yangel Herrera’s thunderous strike cannoned off the crossbar in a counterattacking effort.
After over an hour of futility, Real broke through when Federico Valverde played a pass into the six-yard box where Vinicius was waiting to tap it into the net.
Two minutes later, on a counterattack for Real, Marco Asensio nearly increased the advantage with a shot that required a fantastic reaction stop from Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.
When Marco Asensio handled the ball in the penalty area, the referee gave Girona a chance when he awarded a penalty after consulting the video assistant referee. Stuani stepped up to the spot and beat Thibaut Courtois with a penalty kick, bringing the score to 1-1.
Rodrygo of Real thought he had won the game in stoppage time when he battled Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga for possession of the ball in the goalmouth, but the goal was disallowed because Gazzaniga had possession of the ball.
Just a handball and a penalty, in [the ref’s] opinion. “We have to keep going,” Dani Carvajal remarked. Nothing else can be said; it was already delivered. It looks like we came up short. Mistakes made today must be fixed if we are to make progress.
Thibaut Courtois, the goalkeeper for Real Madrid, has said, “I haven’t seen it, therefore I can’t provide my view.” After a rebound like that, in theory, I don’t think it’s handball, despite Marco [Asensio] saying it hit his chest and then his hand. In the Champions League, I don’t see that happening. They’ve deemed this handball day. Weird, sometimes it feels like handball and other times it doesn’t. But we must examine our own actions as well.
Toni Kroos, a midfielder for Real, was sent off in stoppage time after collecting a second yellow card, making an already bad situation even worse. Girona, who was sitting in 16th place before the game, earned a point that they really needed.
I see this as recognition for the hard work we’ve put in… When asked about the team’s performance, Stuani said, “We deserve credit for the way we performed throughout the 90 minutes.
We had to restrict access since we know they will achieve amazing things if given enough room. You usually have to suffer here [at the Bernabeu], but we waited for our chances and took advantage when they presented themselves.
We didn’t win, but we’re still in the first place, and I think any team would be happy to be in our position,” Carvajal said. We did all we needed to do to win, and we even had a shot at it. When Marco [Asensio] was through on goal, their goalie produced a fantastic stop. The goalie ruled that Rodrygo’s goal was disallowed because the ball touched both his hands before touching the ground.
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