Dovbik has scored 10 goals.
Which team is the hottest or most surprising team in the top five leagues this season?The current La Liga leaders Girona are certainly in charge. The performance of this team has already surprised the whole of Europe. So, how did the little-known Girona manage to become so popular?
To put it simply, Girona's performance is too rebellious, and they have scored 42 goals in the first 17 La Liga games of the season with rapid attacking firepower, which is better than Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, these three traditional giants are many, in the absence of too many well-known stars in the team, this civilian team under the leadership of the veteran Stuani and Ukrainian striker Dovbik all the way crazy, is still in the first place in La Liga with a 2-point advantage, not only the half-way league championship is beckoning to it, but the final La Liga trophy does not look hopeless.
Girona, founded in 1930, is not a strong team compared to the traditional giants of La Liga, and their best record in the past 15 years is only 10th in La Liga last season, and most of the time they have been in La Liga. This season, though, everything has changed qualitatively. The 48-year-old coach Michel has made the team burst into a strong fight, except for the loss to Real Madrid, Girona has almost always been the dominant side in the dialogue with other La Liga teams.
Girona coach Michel.
For example, they beat Barcelona 4-2 away, and the likes of Villarreal, Valencia and Sevilla are no match for Girona. Michel's 3 central defender system for the team has made these unknown players burst out with great energy, like the excellent Ukrainian high school striker Dovbik, you can hardly believe that this is an attacker who has just landed in the top five European leagues this season and can score 10 goals in 16 league games, and like the 33-year-old Blind's performance is also unexpectedly good, the outside world thought that he went to Girona to retire, who knew that the veteran played well and sat firmly in the team's main force.
Compared to the players mentioned above, Girona's most admirable and indomitable spirit of this small team is their captain, Uruguayan veteran Stuani, who celebrated his 37th birthday two months ago. The striker who has been in Europe for many years is known for his time at Espanyol from 2012 to 2015, during which he was definitely a powerful player to be underestimated in the forward line, although he did not score many goals. Since joining Girona in 2017, he has scored 124 goals in 230 appearances for the team in all competitions, and although he has not been a regular choice since last season, the Girona team has scored eight wonderful goals so far this season, and is one of the absolute contributors to the team's temporary ranking first in La Liga.
Stuani. In the early morning of the 19th, Beijing time, Girona defeated Alaves 3-0, winning 3 consecutive victories in the league and topping La Liga with a 2-point advantage. They have won 14, drawn 2 and lost 1 in the first 17 rounds, reaching 44 points. According to statistics, three of the last four teams that were able to score 44 points in the first 17 rounds eventually won the La Liga title (only Real Madrid did not win the title in the 2010-11 season), they were Barcelona in 2008-09, Atletico Madrid in 2020-21 and Barcelona last season.
While it's too early to say that Girona are expected to reach the top of La Liga, it has to be said that they do have a good chance of getting close to that goal. It has been years since a non-big team won the title in the top five leagues, with the most recent being Montpellier in 2011/12, when they beat Paris and Lille to Ligue 1. Since then, although the Bundesliga has also seen the emergence of big dark horses such as Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, they still cannot shake the monopoly of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund on the league title. I don't know if Girona this season can create a miracle in the dark.
Text: Beijing Youth Daily reporter Zhang Kunlong.
Edited by Wang Haozhou.