5 Reasons why Real Madrid lost to Girona
Having recently seen an upturn in their fortunes despite their disastrous start to the campaign which led to talks of a possible treble, Real Madrid have found themselves crashing back to earth with a 2-1 home defeat to Girona in LaLiga.
Los Blancos headed into the match on a good run of form having been undefeated in their last eight matches across all competitions and when Casemiro put the team ahead for a 1-0 halftime lead, it seemed that it was going all to plan, with Real bossing possession and creating all the chances.
However, as they always say, football is a game of two halves and this match was a quintessential example of such, as Girona started the second half like a team reborn, hassling the Real backline and forcing them into errors.
At the end of the day, it turned out to be a comeback victory for Girona, as they rose from the dead to post a 2-1 victory which was their first ever LaLiga victory at the Bernabeu which massively boosted their hopes to avoid relegation and put a big dent in Real Madrid's quest for LaLiga glory.
The defeat was shocking to say the least, owing to the disparity in statures of the clubs as well as their form heading into the match and in this piece, we shall take a look at five factors which contributed to Real Madrid's shock loss to Girona at the Bernabeu.
#5 Sergio Ramos's ineffectiveness
Widely praised as the best center-back in the world, Sergio Ramos has won plenty admirers as well as detractors (with more in the latter category) owing to his penchant for leaving it all on the field and doing all in his power (not always grande gestures) to ensure his team wins at all costs.
This tenacity has seen him help Real Madrid and Spain win numerous titles, with the 32-year-old captaining Real Madrid all through its most successful period in recent memory.
However, for all of his adulation, Ramos also has his undesirable traits, some of which is his proneness to the making of rash decisions leading to unnecessary bookings and his penchant for committing defensive blunders unbefitting a defender of his high standing.
Both of these came to play in the defeat to Girona, with Real conceding a penalty in the second half after Ramos inexplicably dived in to block a shot from Aleix Garcia, while he also compromised Real's comeback attempts, with a needless second yellow after his attempted overhead kick went horribly wrong deep into stoppage time.
Sergio Ramos' overzealousness has helped Real to win numerous trophies and established him as one of the premier defenders in the world, but on the day against Girona, it cost his club three points.
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