Castellanazo in Catalunya
The story of the night was meant to be taking place in Andalusia, many hundreds of miles south in the heat of battle. The Feria de Abril is in full swing in Seville, with crowds adorned in the flourishing dresses and fine suits for what profiled as a decisive clash in the top four race between Real Sociedad and Real Betis at the Benito Villamarín. But all anyone could talk about was the festival in Girona, as Taty Castellanos destroyed Real Madrid.
The former of those clashes ended 0-0, with Real Sociedad heading to cooler climes with their six-point advantage in tact, but there were six goals in North-East, with Castellanos responsible for four of them. Already Vinícius Júnior’s battle with Arnau Martínez was shaping up to be a tasty affair, with the Brazilian looking sharp as a shiv, and showing the sort of aggro that can be expected in a prison yard too. Yet just 12 minutes in Éder Militão sauntered back with almost comical lack of concern, watching on as Castellanos headed in Miguel Gutiérrez’s cross – from where he was meant to be.
Just eight days on from telling the press that he was on his way to being the best central defender in the world, Militão was given a keen reminder of what that requires by Carlo Ancelotti after the game. “If we do not have defensive commitment, this team has problems winning games. If we have defensive commitment, this team can win every game,” Ancelotti grumbled.
That felt rather pointed at the Brazilian, who has been their best defender this season, but just 12 minutes later gave up the position to Castellanos from a long Arnau ball forward, and just when it looked as if he might catch the Girona hitman, Castellanos slotted home.
Real Madrid attacked well in the first half, and looked as if they still had a chance at the game 2-0 down, especially when Vinícius nodded home a Marco Asensio cross expertly. He was the source of all their danger throughout, but the difference was in the second half, when he was working almost alone.
Just a minute into the second period, Yan Couto found Castellanos again in the box, who having lost Militão for the third time, finished from eight yards out. Past the hour mark, Castellanos lost Militão for a remarkable fourth time, on what has been described as his worst night in a Real Madrid shirt – there is little doubt it is Castellanos’ best in a Girona shirt. Quite possibly, it is his best in any shirt.
Los Blancos responded through Lucas Vázquez, who finished another dizzying Vinícius run to gloss the scoreline a little. His threat was constant, and there’s a strong argument that he’s the hardest player to stop in the world currently. There’s another to say he’s the least composed.
Brushing the Real Madrid shirt towards the Girona fans in a clear gesture of denigration, he would seek out confrontation with Girona players time and again, but his treatment from the opposition was not overly physical nor more aggressive than his own. Pushing one Girona player off the ball, while escaping punishment for a blatant dive just minutes earlier, his incessant dissent was also somehow forgiven a second yellow. To have the gall to complain about the refereeing on Twitter after the match goes a long way to explaining the exasperation his own teammates, manager and opposition have shown in recent months.
While this was a galling night for Real Madrid, it belonged to Girona. Míchel Sánchez now has his side all but safe on 41 points, having taken four points off the reigning European champions. His side played out well from the Real Madrid pressure, committing players forward, and playing with ambition and inventiveness. Just as they have all season. It’s a testament to their work that they have scored the most goals outside of Real Madrid and Barcelona, arguably without having a top-class finisher up front (with apologies to the bench cameos from Cristhian Stuani). On Tuesday night, Castellanos was that finisher. He converted four of his six shots, capitalising on an expected goals figure of just 1.61. Once again, Girona and Míchel can be proud of their side, the most entertaining in La Liga through 31 games.