Girona Drop Barca with 2-2 draw At Camp Nou

By Nigel Phillips

Barcelona missed the opportunity to reclaim the top spot of the La Liga table from rivals Real Madrid as Ernesto Valverde men were held to a 2-2 draw by Girona at the Camp Nou on Sunday.

The champions went into the game already overtaken on the log by Real Madrid who beat Espanyol 1-0 on Saturday to open a point lead at the top, and the points dropped means that Barcelona are now two points adrift the Los Blancos after four rounds of games.

Lionel Messi opened the scores in the 19th minute when he beautifully controlled a strongly hit pass from Arturo Vidal inside the box and cut inside his marker to rifle the ball into the bottom left corner. 

The indicators pointed to a perfect night for the hosts, but disaster began to strike just after the hour mark when right-back Clement Lenglet brought down Portu with a horror tackle and received a straight red card from referee Jesus Gil Manzano.

Ginora made their numerical advantage count as Barcelona reduced in both intensity and threat, and Christian Stuani leveled up matters for the visitors in the 45th minute by pouncing on a loosed ball inside the box to beat goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen with a low shot into the middle of the net. 

Christian Stuani and Girona did not allow the hosts any reprieve after the restart as the former showed a perfect technique by producing a first-time effort from just outside the box into the top right corner. 

Barcelona maintained possession of the ball and produced short and one-two passes from player to player but could not penetrate the watertight Girona defence, until Gerard Pique got to a rebound inside the six-yard box in the 63rd minute and produced a header into the left post. 

Bono made a good save to Lionel Messi’s free-kick from the edge of the box in the 73rd minute, ten minutes before the unmarked Philippe Coutinho blew the hosts last opening of the night by dragging a shot just wide of the right post.