The Catalan team manages to promote to the First Division via the ‘playoff’ in their sixth attempt
The curse of the third in Second grows stronger every year. Finishing in the third rung in the silver category has become the worst nightmare, stories that even the best screenwriters couldn’t design. The ‘play-off’ has become more of a drama than another chance for anyone who finishes on the third step of the podium during the regular season. No one wants to see themselves at such a crossroads.
Only three teams -Valladolid, Almería and Getafe- have managed to avoid what is almost a norm in the 12 years since this system was introduced. The list keeps getting longer: Girona, Nástic, Zaragoza twice, Málaga, Leganés and now Eibar.
With almost no reaction time has been seen at the gates of promotion for no one a dish of good taste. They could tell Girona, who played in one of the most difficult chapters in memory. That fateful June 2015 will hardly be forgotten in Montilivi. From with both feet in the First Division to a goal by Pablo Caballero, then in the ranks of Lugo, in the 89th minute that sent them to the dreaded ‘play-off’.
However, the worst had not yet come. A 0-3 in the first leg would be a great result for everyone except Girona. The big advantage of little would help him in Montilivi against Zaragoza, who would star in one of the greatest comebacks in modern football in memory. With three goals in the first half, hands tied the score, with a fourth goal added midway through the second half to condemn it. Few could believe it.
Now, this year, tragedy has crossed Eibar. From champion to a goal by Giovanni Zarfino, in discount time, relegation to third place on the last day. What came next, they might have imagined. Again the third fell to the first substitution, this time against the rival who has had the worst time in playoff history. A goal from Borja García, as soon as the game started, and a goal from Cristhian Stuani, at the start of extra time, voided the Basque victory in the first leg.
From one curse to another, Girona would break theirs. As the saying goes that the third time is the charm, the Catalans had to wait for the sixth. With their win and subsequent promotion to the Heliodoro, the Catalans have put an end to the curse that had plagued them since their first league play-off. The happy ending would come sooner or later, though life’s coincidences accompanied it to its first executioner, the Almeria of an old man known as Rubi, who was then on the other side.
True dramas have come to life in Montilivi, not forgetting Zaragoza’s epic comeback in what is certainly one of the greatest tragedies for the Catalan club. It seemed an impossible mission for a promotion to come along this route. They had to go in sixth to put an end to the bad omens. It is the third campaign in a row that the sixth is up, as Elche and Rayo have done it before.
The last two ‘play-offs’ were still in the memory of the Girona people. Pere Milla’s goal, in the midst of a pandemic and without an audience, in the 96th minute still stings Because the most recent story was also on the retina and that Rayo Vallecano who reversed the decisive draw 364 days ago, leaving Girona a year longer in the second division.
But it had to be home where this cursed story would end. And he had to do it the same day the city’s basketball team was promoted to the Endesa League. With Míchel at the wheel of the ship, it was time. The coach who once rose to the top tier with Rayo Vallecano and Huesca has been in charge to break the particular curse of this Girona.
Source: La Verdad
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