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Girona coach Míchel lauded his team’s “soul” and said they are capable of beating anyone after stunning Barcelona 4-2 to move two points clear at the top of LaLiga.
Artem Dovbyk, Miguel Gutiérrez, Valery and Cristhian Stuani were all on target as Girona sealed a first-ever win over Barça at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday.
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Míchel said his team’s performance proved they can compete with anyone, but he refused to get carried away in terms of what it meant for their title hopes.
“The first thing to say is we are safe [from relegation] now with 41 points,” Míchel said in a news conference after winning the Catalan derby.
“That’s happened much earlier than we thought. We have made history. It was a game to be remembered, a great game between two teams looking to go for it.
“Any football fan watching has seen two teams that had the intention to win and I think we did LaLiga a favour with the match today, playing toe-to-toe.
“I don’t know [if we can win the league], but it’s not the objective. We don’t have the pressure on us that [Barça coach] Xavi Hernández has.
“I am enjoying the moment. I don’t know if we are in a position to win LaLiga, but we are in a position to beat any opponent.”
With 16 games gone, Girona are two points clear of Madrid and now seven ahead of Barça, who are joint third with Atlético Madrid.
They are also the top scorers in the league and their rise to the top, in just their fourth ever top flight season, has drawn parallels with Leicester City’s unexpected Premier League triumph in 2016.
“Ask me in the final third of the season,” Míchel added when asked if replicating Leicester’s success was a possibility.
“We will see where we are after 26 games and what capacity we have to fight for [certain] objectives.
“Right now, it’s a long way away but the data shows it is a historic season. We are beating all expectations by a lot.
“We are top with a lot of points, an amount in line with some of the great title winning teams in LaLiga [at this stage of the campaign]. We will enjoy moment and see where we are after 26 matches.”
Barça coach Xavi conceded it was a terrible result for his side after a recent revival with wins against FC Porto and Atlético Madrid, but insisted the performance was not bad.
“It is a disastrous result, but the performance was not disastrous,” the Barça boss said in a news conference. “It’s a big blow because we were hoping to get back within two points of the leaders.
“This is the reality. It’s a Barça side in construction. These things happen when you are building, taking a step back to hopefully take two forward.
“Today, things didn’t come off for us, but on another day they could have. We can’t have any doubts. It was not a bad performance. Last year we also faced setbacks, but we went on to win two trophies.”
Dovbyk gave Girona an early lead in a pulsating contest only for Robert Lewandowski to draw Barça level soon after. The visitors restored their advantage before the break through Miguel and substitute Valery made it 3-1 in the second half.
Ilkay Gündogan‘s stoppage time goal got Barça back into the game late on and Lewandowski even had a chance to equalise before Stuani struck in the 95th minute to clinch the points and set off wild celebrations among the away fans.
Xavi lamented his team’s inability to take their chances as they ended the game with 31 shots, 11 of which were on target, but zero points.
“We are angry about the defeat because we had the game in our hands,” he added. “We have not taken advantage of our moments while Girona did. It was two teams exchanging blows, they took their chances and we didn’t.
“We had 30-odd shots. We have to be more clinical and we have to be more solid in defence, which was also one of the reasons for the defeat.
“[But] there are four trophies in play still. We are in the race. We are in uncomfortable situation in the league, yes, but we believe in work we are doing. We go again with the Champions League in midweek and Valencia on Saturday.”