Brutally Late Goalie Boner Costs Girona In Champions League Debut
We here at Defector have made our affection for Girona well-known. Even with the City Football Group ownership angle, it’s hard to deny that Girona breaking into the top three of La Liga last season was very cool. Hell, even as a Barcelona fan, I found myself pulling for a Gironiste title charge during the club’s season-opening points barrage, when it led the league into January. Though winning La Liga turned out to be just a pipe dream, third place and a debutant spot in the Champions League was more than enough consolation for a club that isn’t all that big, and one that often has served as a Manchester City feeder club.
On Wednesday, Girona made that Champions League debut in France, taking on the new-look Paris Saint-Germain—”new look” meaning “no longer employs Kylian Mbappé“—in the opening match of group … well, there’s actually no more group play in the Champions League. Love or hate the new format—I’m a centrist, leaning ever so slightly towards the hate side—the stated goal of the tournament is to get more games that matter on the calendar. (The unstated goal of the tournament is to simply get more games, and more money, on the calendar.) To have the French champions, a veritable juggernaut, take on the upstart Spaniards … that’s the type of match this new format was seemingly made for.
For the most part, the match delivered only in fits and starts. PSG controlled most of the possession, but couldn’t convert 26 shots into goals, hitting only 5 of those on target. Girona defended bravely, cutting off PSG’s avenues into the box, and forcing speculative shots from distance, particularly in the first half. In the second, there were chances for PSG, most clearly from Ousmane Dembélé shortly after halftime: The Frenchman had a breakaway on goal, with Bradley Barcola sprinting level with him for a cutback pass, only for Dembélé to not shoot or pass in time before Ladislav Krejci caught up to him and stole the ball from behind. Not the best showing, but it was that kind of game for the Parisiens, who might have felt content with a the draw and moving on to the next of eight total league-stage matches. For its part, Girona also would have been thrilled with a point in what on paper looked like its hardest match.
Ultimately, it took a monumental amount of bad luck and/or a bit of goalie bonerism, depending on how generous you’re feeling, but PSG did eventually break through. As regular time trickled to a close, Nuno Mendes received the ball out by the flank. The Portuguese left back stuttered once then turned on the jets and left Girona right back Arnau Martínez behind him, getting around just enough to send a low cutback to the center of the box. At least, that appeared to be Mendes’s plan, given the angle and the onrushing Dembélé in the box. However, his pass was just slightly deflected by a sliding Alejandro Francés, and the ball took a wicked curve towards goalie Paulo Gazzaniga.
Ninety-nine times out of 100, a professional goalkeeper scoops that ball up, even with the curve, with no problems. But for every 99 routine grabs, there’s a Rob Green moment that sees the ball go through the keeper’s legs, which is exactly what happened to Gazzaniga.
On replay, it looks like Gazzaniga never really had a hand on the ball. Whether due to the deflection or just not expecting the ball to come at him from that angle, he reacted too slowly to it and instead of a point-winning save, he’s left with an embarrassing blooper through the five hole.
This is the challenge of being a goalkeeper, of course, and it’s something every top level goalie signs up for. That doesn’t make it any less demoralizing for a team to hold off a more talented opponent, on the road, for 90 minutes, only for a brief lapse of concentration by one player to cost them the game. Perhaps this was the cruelest of karmic paybacks. Girona did switch into time-wasting mode earlier than perhaps was necessary in the second half, though the threat of Dembélé specifically was always looming; aside from the botched breakaway, he also hit the post in the second half. Rather than any mystical forces in play, though, it feels easy enough to boil this down to its root cause: Girona left Paris with no points because of a goalie boner, and Gazzaniga is probably the loneliest man in the Champions League right now.
