Real Madrid 1-2 Girona: Real Madrid suffered a painful 1-2 defeat to Girona in Sunday's La Liga cracker at the Bernabeu, a performance that sees the Los Blancos fall nine points adrift of La Liga pacesetter Barcelona.
Brazilian star Casemiro netted the opener for Real Madrid in the first stanza, but in the second two strikes from the pair of Cristhian Stuani and Portu handed Girona a big win over their more famous hosts.
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The two teams were eager to rake the lead from the start with Girona showing their intensions on the counter, but Lucas Vazquez, who was well positioned could not net from his effort inside the box.
Girona responded immediately through Stuani’s strike from 18 yards which was well dealt with by Thibaut Courtois.
In the 25th minute, the home-side upped their game as Casemiro out jumped Girona’s defender to nod home a decent cross Toni Kroos, to claim the opening goal of the contest.
The Los Blancos had other scoring chances to increase the lead but Girona were not ready to let in a second.
In the 40th minute, the away side had another opportunity to level scores courtesy of Alex Granell, but his strike could not trouble Courtois.
Karim Benzema also missed a chance to net a second for the Galaticos as the scores remained 1-0 in favour of Real Madrid going into the break.
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In the second stanza, Marcelo’s super strike was pushed over the goalpost by Bono in Girona goal, while Benzema missed a chance to score from a deflected effort.
The Frenchman has another moment to increase the lead moments later but could only hit the side of the net.
In the other end, Girona missed a sitter, Aleix Garcia could not convert after Anthony Lozano’s header was stopped by Courtois.
But Girona had the reward in their next move after Stuani's header was saved again by Courtois only for Sergio Ramos to handle the ball.
The referee awarded a penalty to Girona before flashing a yellow card on Ramos.
Stuani took the responsibility and sent Courtois the wrong direction for Girona’s equalizer.
With 15 minutes remaining on the clock, Real Madrid brought on Gareth Bale see if they can regain the lead, but Girona had other plans
A decent effort by Lozan was pushed away by Courtois, but Portu, who was in the box placed to a header beyond the reach of the goalkeeper.
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Interestingly, the Los Blancos pushed forward in the closing moments of the game for the needed equalizer, but had Ramos handed the second yellow card which resulted in his marching orders for dangerous play.
After five minutes of added time Girona held on to claim all maximum points.
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