Girona delivered their most convincing performance of the season with a 5-1 thrashing of Celta de Vigo II at Montilivi on Saturday. Vladyslav Vanat was the star of the show, netting a hat-trick and providing an assist to fire his team to 21 points, just two shy of the automatic promotion places.
The white-and-reds dominated from the outset, enjoying 65% possession and firing 21 shots. Vanat opened the scoring in the 17th minute from a Unai Hernández pass. Just three minutes later, the Ukrainian returned the favour, setting up Hernández for the second. The sending-off of Celta defender Pablo González Meixús in the 28th minute made the task easier, and Vanat converted a penalty a minute later to make it 3-0. Carles Pérez added a fourth in the 38th minute before Vanat completed his hat-trick in the 55th. Óscar Marcos grabbed a consolation for the visitors in the 59th minute.
Stuani's return
The match also featured an emotional return for captain Christian Stuani. The striker, who had been sidelined with injury, came on in the 73rd minute to a warm ovation from the Montilivi crowd. His introduction capped a near-perfect afternoon, marred only by a late yellow card for dissent in stoppage time. With this win, Girona are on a two-game winning streak in the league and sit fourth in the table. However, in our updated standings, the team is sixth with 18 points from 10 games.
Manager Quique Álvarez was pleased with his team's display. "El Girona se gusta con una goleada frente al Celta Fortuna," the coach said after the match. The statistics backed up his satisfaction, with the team posting an xG of 3.32 against the visitors' 0.73. Girona's next fixture is on Tuesday, October 27th at 18:30 local time against Cuarte in the Copa del Rey. Attention then returns to the league with a trip to face 19th-placed Real Sociedad II on October 31st.
