Girona manager Michel Sanchez after Atletico Madrid win – ‘We can’t compete toe-to-toe with Real Madrid’

Girona have finished the first half of the season level on points with Real Madrid, following an historic first victory over Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night, gifted to them Ivan Martin’s stoppage time winner. It may well have put Los Rojiblancos out of the title race, leaving them ten points behind, but Girona manager Michel Sanchez brushed off talk that they could compete for the title.

“It is an historic day for us, the city and the province. Very satisfied. We had a spectacular first half, but the 3-2 score put us out of joint a bit. In the second half it was clear that Atlético was going to turn the score around, but the changes gave us energy. In the last 20-25 minutes, either team could have done damage and Iván’s goal was a great goal,” he told Diario AS.

Highlighting one thing in particular, Michel picked out Girona’s mentality as the thing he was most pleased with.

“It was a great game, with an incredible mentality. The resilience of the group is what makes me happiest. We were overwhelmed on the field at times, but we knew how to suffer, endure and wait for our moment. In the end we were rewarded with a great goal. Historic night.”

The ex-Rayo Vallecano boss was not getting carried away, even if the rest of Spain is, and assured the press that his side were not title contenders.

“Our dream is to go to Europe. We cannot fight a team like Real Madrid toe-to-toe. We dream of getting into Europe and taking it game by game.”

With Barcelona also ten points behind, pending their match against Las Palmas, there are no footballing reasons to suggest that Girona are not Real Madrid at the time of writing. Els Blanc-i-Vermells are the top scorers in the division, and have shown some amount of the resilience to come from behind and win on seven occasions this season. Naturally, Michel will want to keep expectations and pressure in check, and logic would suggest that Los Blancos will run out winners ahead of Girona, but there may be more than a few fans dreaming.