Villarreal triumphed over Girona on Tuesday, shattering their dreams of surpassing Barcelona in LaLiga standings. Bertrand Traore’s goal secured a 1-0 victory, denying Girona a chance to reclaim second place.
Girona sits in third place with 75 points, trailing Barcelona by one point after the latter’s 2-0 win against Real Sociedad on Monday. Alexander Sorloth and Goncalo Guedes came close to scoring for Villarreal in the first half, but Girona’s Paulo Gazzaniga exhibited excellent goalkeeping skills.
In the 59th minute, Traore scored the decisive goal, capitalizing on a beautiful pass from Guedes. Despite attempts from Viktor Tsyhankov, Savio, and Artem Dovbyk, Girona failed to find the back of Filip Jorgensen’s net.
Villarreal faced adversity when Kiko Femenia received a second yellow card and was sent off in the 95th minute for pushing Aleix Garcia. This led to their reduction to 10 men.
In a rare occurrence, Girona suffered only their second home defeat at Montilivi in LaLiga this season, the first being a 0-3 loss to Real Madrid in September. During the match, they attempted 749 passes, marking their highest pass total in any LaLiga game this season.
