In the Spanish league on Monday, Barcelona was held to a scoreless draw at home against Girona after failing to recover from its humbling defeat to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey semifinals. (Also in Football)
With 10 games left, the outcome nevertheless enabled Barcelona to extend their advantage over Madrid in second place to 13 points. On Saturday, Madrid fell to Villarreal 3-2 at home.
Barcelona fell to Madrid 4-0 last week at Camp Nou. Barcelona fell to Madrid at home by four goals for the first time since 1963, and it planned to bounce back in the team’s infrequent Monday encounter.
Barcelona coach Xavi said, “Winning the Spanish league is the only thing that bothers me right now. We remain in a strong position. With 10 matches remaining, we still have a 13-point lead over the opposition, therefore a draw at home is not acceptable. We must adopt an optimistic perspective.
Gavi, a playmaker for Barcelona, had one of the finest opportunities to break the score until Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga denied him with a diving save in the last seconds. Soon after, Robert Lewandowski came close to scoring with a backheel attempt that was deflected off a defender in front of the net.
Taty Castellanos missed Girona’s finest chance in a one-on-one position early in the second half.
Barcelona had 18 shots throughout the game, but only three were on goal. Girona had five total shots, but none were on goal.
With four victories and two draws, Barcelona has never lost against Girona in league games. That was the first time Barcelona had lost to another Catalan team without scoring.
Barcelona hasn’t lost in any of its 14 league home games this year, and they’ve only let up two goals overall, both of which came in victories against Madrid (2-1) and Espanyol (1-0).
It was the first league away clean sheet for Girona since the beginning of 2019. With the draw, it maintained position eleven.
The last round saw Girona defeat Espanyol at home, and the team will visit last-place Elche next. On Sunday, Barcelona travels to relegation-perilous Getafe.
Due to injury, Xavi was still unable to rely on a number of players, notably Frenkie de Jong, Pedri, and Ousmane Dembélé.
In the tenth minute of the match versus Madrid in the cup, Lionel Messi’s name was sung by Camp Nou supporters. The booing of the former Barcelona player by some Paris Saint-Germain supporters after the team’s recent home loss to Lyon reinforced rumours that he may depart this summer, but he scored in PSG’s 2-0 victory against Nice on Saturday.
