The Estadio Montilivi at Girona is a ground that I tried to see a game at around ten years ago. On that occasion Jen and I had driven up from way down south, probably around the Granada area. Sadly, that game was sold out, although it wasn’t surprising really as it was an end of season play-off fixture.
This time we only had a six-hour drive and as we headed away from the Costa Blanca we encountered our first rain of the trip.
I’d learned my lesson and bought my ticket early online to make sure that I’d get in. It was as well that I did as the game sold out a week or so in advance. I paid forty-eight euros for a seat in one of the corners. The sell-out was no surprise as Girona are doing a bit of a Leicester and vying with Real Madrid for the title.
Jen and I weren’t the only ones to have made the trip north and as we had breakfast in town we saw and heard a fair few Valencia fans who had made the journey up the coast.
I was at the ground with time to spare and if I’d been a bit more organised, I could probably have got myself a voucher for free paella as everyone else seemed to have done. There were large communal tables in a set up that encouraged socialising. As I had neither paella nor the language skills for a chat, I left them to it and headed inside.
It was cold and windy inside the fourteen-thousand capacity ground, which looked as if it had been expanded with temporary stands on three sides of the pitch.
One of the attractions of this game was the chance to see former Boro player Cristhian Stuani. He’s someone that I appreciated at the Boro as, even when played wide, he had that knack of getting into goalscoring positions and then taking the chances.
I think he’s more highly rated by Boro fans these days after his success at Girona, but back in the day I remember him being derided as ‘Northern League’, usually by the same fans who got on the backs of Tav or Downing yet were taken in by Tuncay’s haring around for effect and those selfish fancy flicks.
Sadly, Stuani started this game on the bench along with his Boro Premier season team mate, Espinosa. Girona began the game well, playing the ball around at the back and having a ‘goal’ disallowed by the VAR for offside.
Valencia had a section for their fans to my left, but there were also a lot of them dotted around the home areas. Nobody minded that they wore their scarves and waved their flags and that’s exactly as it should be.
Despite the Girona dominance, Valencia took the lead ten minutes into the second half with a neat little dinked effort. With Girona falling behind I anticipated that Stuani would get the call before long, but we had to wait until fifteen minutes from time before he appeared off the bench.
Almost immediately he caused some havoc in the Valencia defence with a point-blank header that was well saved. Five minutes later, and just like in that Brighton game, he was in the right place at the right time and tapped in the equaliser at the back post.
It got better for the veteran striker when with three minutes to go he ghosted in and added the winner. Not bad for ‘Northern League’. The Girona fans were ecstatic as with Real Madrid not playing until the evening the three points took their team back to the top of the table.
Trail of the Lion King 
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