Real Madrid drew 1-1 with Girona at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday, but the defending champions maintained their unbeaten La Liga record and are one point ahead of Barcelona.
After the first half without goals, Real opened the scoring through Vinicius Jr In the 70th minute, their lead was canceled out by a penalty kick from Cristhian Stuani after 10 minutes.
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The two teams had their chances in the first half without goals with Real striker Rodrigo, and he led the attack in the absence of Karim Benzema, and he was as close as possible to the owners of the land when his shot hit the post.
On the other hand, Girona threatened to counterattack, with captain Valerie Fernandez headered wide of the goal while Yangel Herrera saw his powerful cannon from the crossbar.
Real frustrated for over an hour, but finally made the breakthrough when their patient play allowed Federico Valverde to put the ball into the six-yard area where Vinicius had it on hand to tap into the net.
Marco Asensio almost doubled the lead two minutes later with a counter-attack for Real Madrid, converting a penalty in the penalty area and hitting the ball towards goal, but Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga saved a superb reaction to deny the midfielder.
Girona received a lifeline when Marco Asensio touched the ball in the penalty area and the referee awarded a penalty after checking the VAR, Stuani went up to the penalty spot and sent Thibaut Courtois the wrong way to equalize the score.
Real’s Rodrygo thought he had won the match upon death when he fought for the ball in a goal struggle with Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, but the referee canceled his goal because the goalkeeper was controlling the ball when the Brazilian hit it.
“[The referee] I think it was a handball and a penalty, and that’s it. Dani Carvajal said: “We have to keep going. There’s nothing else to say, I’ve been given. We didn’t win. We have to correct the mistakes of the day and keep going.
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said: “I haven’t seen it, so I can’t give my opinion. Marco.” [Asensio] He says it hit his chest and then his hand, and in theory I think after a bounce like this it wasn’t a hand touch. I don’t think it will be presented in the Champions League. Today they decided it was handball. It’s weird, sometimes it’s handball, sometimes it’s not, you just don’t know. But we have to look at ourselves, too.”
Real’s match only worsened when midfielder Toni Kroos was sent off in extra time after receiving a second yellow card. Girona, 16th in the standings, came off with a valuable point as their players fell to the ground comfortably.
“I think it’s a reward for all the effort we put in… Coming here and getting a result is not easy and we deserve credit for the way we played for the 90 minutes,” Stuani said.
“We had to close the spaces, and we know if we give them incredible space. We’ve waited for our opportunities and they have come, you always have to suffer here. [at the Bernabeu]. “
“We couldn’t win, but in general we are still at the top, any team that wants to be in our place,” Carvajal added. “We did enough to win, and we had some chances. Their goalkeeper made a superb save from Marco [Asensio]. [For Rodrygo’s goal] The goalkeeper said the ball is in his hands and the ground, so it was a mistake.”
