Tuesday, November 26, 2024, 10:46
In their first campaign fighting European battles, Girona has a lot of work to do to prolong the dream in the Old Continent, and Míchel’s men already count as finals any challenge that comes their way between now and the end of the league. Although not even the most optimistic fan in the Empordà region recently imagined their team traveling through Champions League territory, the truth is that now a great exercise of faith is needed to advance to the next round.
Míchel’s team is in a sweet spot, in the best moment of the season, and is righting its course after a hesitant start in LaLiga and some bad luck in the top continental competition. After adding a total of three consecutive victories in the domestic tournament, the red and whites, who at times remember that magical team that they fell in love with last year, will look for their second victory in the Champions League in Austria against Sturm Graz after beating Slovan Bratislava at home and lose to PSG, Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven, something that would be a great boost for the Catalan project.
With no margin for error, the daring team from Girona faces the current leader of the Austrian Bundesliga, an old acquaintance of the Spanish teams in Europe but which has zero points in its locker, before the duels against Liverpool, Milan and Arsenal, three giants of international competition. “Living off memories is very good, but I knew that we have to continue growing,” Míchel recalled not long ago, knowing that to be in the next playoff and not be eliminated he must, at least, win two games and draw another to be among the 24 best in the tournament.
From the last European debacle against PSV, Míchel’s team recovers, as it did this last weekend against Espanyol, Tsygankov, Ivan Martín, Asprilla, Francés, Jhon Solis or Danjuma and Krejci, all of them important players for a group that was in the picture in this last month in which several players from the reserve team and the youth team had to come to the rescue of the people from Girona. The national team break, with fifteen days without club football, has been great for a Girona that needed, like eating, to recover its strength and good feelings.
Possible alignments
Sturm Graz: Scherpen; Johnston, Aiwu, Lavalee, Gazibegovic; Yalcouye, Chukwuani, Kiteishvili, Boving; Biereth and Jatta.
Girona: Gazzaniga; French, Krejci, David Lopez, Blind, Miguel Gutierrez; Oriol Romeu, Van de Beek; Tsygankov, Miovski and Bryan Gil.
Referee: Rohit Saggi (Norway)
Schedule and TV: 6:45 p.m. | M+ Champions League
