Momentum or: How did Barcelona lose to Girona?

Barcelona 2-4 Girona - La Liga

In a truly ridiculous night of football, Girona beat the breaks off Barcelona in a barnstorming Catalan Derby, triumphing 2-4 in Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.

This was the first time in their history that Girona have managed to beat their bigger Catalan neighbours, and it was a victory that sent them two points clear at the top of La Liga. They are having an incredible season and in many ways, this result was simply in accordance with the way 2023/24 is going.

But given the vast difference between the two teams in terms of reputation and stature, and given that Barcelona are defending champions, this result was wild.

So, just exactly how did Barcelona lose to Girona?

Well, there are two broad answers that explain Sunday night’s drama.

Michel outcoaches Xavi

Girona maximised their strengths to expose Barcelona’s weaknesses. The use of Miguel Gutierrez as an underlapping full-back, raiding through the half-space, put Barcelona on the back foot for the whole first-half and then the former Real Madrid man scored a massive go-ahead goal with a storming strike (not long after missing a couple of good chances, too).

Then after Xavi’s half-time adjustments, when Barcelona were on-top, Girona’s coach Michel made some key substitutions - most notably replacing the entire front three. Cristhian Stuani’s enormous physical presence unsettled Barça, before his towering header set-up fellow sub Valery to score, then right at the end Stuani himself put the finishing touches on the iconic win, celebrating 90’s style out on the running track.

Basically, Michel timed his subs perfectly to snatch the second-half momentum away from Barcelona and drive Girona on to victory. He outcoached Xavi, first tactically and then strategically.

Momentum. That word is also the main answer as to why Girona beat Barcelona. Or rather, why Barcelona lost to Girona. Not to take credit away from Michel’s side, but as was said post-match:

"Girona played really well but it was our fault we lost the game tonight"

—Frenkie de Jong

Barcelona can’t make the most of momentum

Girona capitalised on their momentum, scoring at the end of the first-half when they were by far the dominant side. When they needed to regain the momentum after the break, Michel made proactive substitutions to do just that. And then once Stuani unsettled Barça, Girona took advantage of that momentum to kill off their hosts.

Meanwhile, look at the Barcelona’s efforts to do the same:

They began the game with the ball, dominant. They didn’t score, missing chances mostly through Raphinha and Lewandowski - and then get hit on the break by Girona when Dovbyk opened the scoring from Tsygankov’s cross.

After Barcelona recaptured momentum and equalised within 10 minutes, then then failed to build on that. More chances were missed before Girona siezed control of the game through Miguel Gutierrez’s raids and took the lead, as previously mentioned.

Xavi clearly spent half-time yelling at Frenkie de Jong because the Dutchman, who was supine in the first-half, was erect after the break and was pounding into tackles, seriously limiting Gutierrez’s ability to impact the game.

So Barcelona were the dominant side again. And Xavi made a triple substitution to try and capitalise on that. But while Lamine Yamal was undoubtedly better than Raphinha (more on that later) and Ferran made more off-the-ball runs than Joao Felix, nothing happened. No goals came from this good play as a host of chances were splattooned wide, mostly from Ilkay Gundogan.

Then Michel made his big change and Girona went from 1-2 to 1-3. But just when you thought they were out of the game, Lamine Yamal showed why he’s in the Barcelona first-team at 16 years of age.

First his neat pass slipped into the box allowed Ferran Torres to find Ilkay Gundogan and the German finally finished off one of his chances to make it 2-3. Then about 60 seconds later, in the 93rd minute of the game, Lamine Yamal stepped back onto his magical left-foot and peeled off a gorgeous, impossible cross that soared into the box and right onto the head of Robert Lewandowski. This was the equaliser, surely?

Well, no.

Lewandowski shouldered the ball wide. It was a massive miss, an inexplicable miss. Even struggling as he has, Lewandowski is usually automatic from that distance when under no defensive pressure whatsoever.

Barcelona had all the momentum, to the extent that had they scored it’s not inconceivable that they could have pushed on to win the game. It was right there for them to win, and they just didn’t.

Then Girona go up the other end and Stuani, a man truly riding the momentum wave, plunges the dagger deep into Barça’s heart.

“We didn’t control the moments.”

Xavi, being a smart man, is well aware of what the problem is. After the match he was insistent that Barcelona did play well and that the difference was in how his team didn’t capitalise on momentum.

"I think the difference was the effectivity today."

—Xavi

“We didn’t control the moments,” Xavi said to La Liga TV after the game. "We had many moments to score the goal but we didn't do it."

Now, there’s more to it than that. Why were Girona so tactically dominant in the first-half? Why has Xavi failed to come up with a coherent structure for transition defence to cover for the absence of Gavi and/or an actual defensive midfielder? Why did Alejandro Balde come on and play centre-back, but, like, attacking centre-back?

Those are questions, but for another day, because ultimately Xavi is right about the Girona loss. Barcelona did not take advantage of their momentum, their moments, and that is what decided things. Just look at the xG from the game!

via: @OptaAnalyst

Barcelona putting up 31 shots, 11 on target, 4.06 xG and only scoring twice is absolutely ridiculous. Perplexing. Preposterous. Pathetic.

Everyone was culpable of big misses. Early on it was Raphinha who just couldn’t seem to get it together. Barça’s no. 11 often plays like a parody of a Brazilian winger. He has the look, the style, the moves, but almost everything he does is terrible.

He took 8 shots in the game and every one of them was a rotter that failed to trouble Girona. Also letting fly 8 times was Ilkay Gundogan. The German international didn’t have a single shot as bad as Raphinha’s in the first-half from point-blank range after Joao Cancelo’s cross, nor Lewandowski’s baffling miss at the death, but is perhaps the biggest culprit of Barcelona failing to capitalise on their momentum.

One of the key switches in the second-half, besides Frenkie de Jong actually tackling people, was Gundogan making more of his trademark bursts into the box. And the strategy really worked as Girona repeatedly failed to track him and he had several good-to-great looks at goal.

Yet the midfielder who has repeatedly scored crucial goals to deliver titles for Manchester City was shockingly ineffective against Girona, skewing shots high and wide or tamely passing them into the arms of Paulo Gazzaniga.

Each missed chance kept Barcelona behind on the scoresheet, and increased their desperation. Eventually they were pushing so far up that Girona were able to undo them with a simple long-ball to Stuani.

But say Gundogan takes one of those chances and the game becomes 2-2 around the hour, or 70 minutes. Sure, Barcelona had periods of suffering, of, playing poorly, but what if they were able to ride those moments out and strike when they could?

What if Barcelona actually capitalised on their momentum, in the way big teams often do? Well, then we’re probably talking about a massive win for Xavi’s men and Girona being undone by an elite side yet again. Instead, Girona made history and Barça’s title bid is wobbling in December.

If you can’t beat ‘em, copy ‘em.

This is not a new problem for Xavi’s team in 2023/24. Just look at their other big loss of the season against Real Madrid: that was a match the Blaugrana dominated for an hour - Gavi had Jude Bellingham in his pocket and Fermin Lopez was making Toni Kroos look geriatric.

But Barcelona scored just once. Then Jude van Nistelrooy did his thing, rocketing Madrid level and Los Blancos’ gathered momentum, and in classic fashion followed through with Bellingham bagging a late winner. They took advantage of their momentum to the fullest, while Barcelona spluttered theirs away.

"We had 60 really good minutes and scored one goal. Madrid had 20 good minutes and scored twice.”

—Xavi

On the Clásico loss, Xavi added: “That's football, if you don't score the second... We need five or six [chances] to score a goal. With three, they score two.”

That, in essence, is the major stylistic difference between Barcelona and Real Madrid. While Barça will always try and play football in their particular style and try to change things with tactical shifts, Real Madrid’s main stylistic blueprint is that goals change games an guys that shoot score lots of goals. So they have players who like to shoot.

Time and again you will see a Madrid player just let fly at goal, especially if Madrid are struggling. And often, because they have tremendous players, it results in a goal. Jude Bellingham did it and turned the Clásico on its head.

It’s no coincidence that the big goal today for Girona, the goal that saw them capitalise on their momentum and take the lead, was scored by a former Real Madrid player. Miguel Gutierrez was playing well anyway, but having the confidence, belief and skill to take and make the shot he did changed the game.

Girona are overshooting their xG this season by 7.4 goals; Real Madrid are also overshooting xG but only by 5 goals, while Atlético Madrid are 4.3 goals up.

Barcelona? 4.9 goals down. They are undershooting their xG. Scoring less than they should be doing. And it’s pretty obvious just by watching them play.

If Xavi wants to turn his fortunes around this season then he will have to borrow a page from his great enemy’s book. Sometimes, it’s ok to just shoot at goal. In fact it’s often a good idea! More Barcelona players should be comfortable just shooting!

Also maybe organise some extra finishing sessions for Raphinha and Gundogan. Get Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry and Luis Suárez to come talk to these dudes. Because, like, god damn.