And still they keep going!
After being hit for three by the mighty Real Madrid at the end of last month, who thought Girona would slip down the La Liga standings?
Ok, well if none of you are happy to admit it, this SBOTOP writer will.
Yet here we are, heading into November, and the club from North Catalonia, with a ground that holds only 14,624, some of them on scaffolding stands, are the (joint) league leaders and top scorers in the division.
Remember this is the side hailing from a city of 97,586 people, overshadowed by Barcelona 99 kilometres down the road, and a club which sold a number of its best players this summer, including Oriol Romeu (to Barcelona), top scorer Taty Castellanos, their best winger Rodrigo Riquelme and centre-back, Santi Bueno.
All of them played at least 33 of 38 league games last season. Six players have since arrived, two on loan and one on a free transfer, for little more than €15 million.
Despite all of this, Girona are somehow delivering La Liga highlights.
On Friday night at their Montilivi ground they continued their excellent start to the campaign in a dramatic finish.
Yangel Herrera’s injury-time goal won the day, shortly after Celta had a goal ruled out for a foul which their boss Rafa Benítez called ‘inexplicable’.
Although they remain in the relegation zone with six points from 11 games, they should have more than enough to avoid a relegation battle.
This was about Girona, though, as they returned to the summit ahead of the first El Clasico of the season.
Less than 24 hours later and here were champions Barcelona and arch rivals Real Madrid going head-to-head and continuing their utterly compelling spectacle, even if experts rightly highlighted they are both still some way from where they want to be.
With observers waiting to see if this encounter set the tone for the 2023-24 title race, first blood went to Barca as Ilkay Gundogan took just six minutes to score his first goal for is new employers.
An attempted one-two with Ferran Torres fortuitously broke back to the German international inside the penalty area, and he made no mistake.
It was a special moment for Gundogan in his first El Clasico appearance since joining from Manchester City in the summer.
Young Fermin Lopez almost made it two with a 16th minute effort which came back off the post.
Barca were well on top and that’s how it stayed for an hour when the strength of their bench was shown when Robert Lewandowski entered the fray as a replacement for Torres.
Of course, if you fail to take advantage when on top against Real it can come back to haunt you, and Gundogan wasn’t the only big-game player capable of producing the goods in his first El Clasico.
For midway through the second half up stepped a man who so much was spoken of before kick-off – Jude Bellingham.
From a good 30 yards out, the England man picked up the ball and sent it crashing beyond Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Before kick-off, he was said to be relishing the occasion and very aware of its history.
Here was another chapter but, incredibly, he wasn’t finished.
With the clock on 92 minutes, there he was again, poking home the winner through the legs of Marc-André ter Stegen.
Luka Modric did well to keep the ball inside the penalty area and flicked it to Bellingham who did the rest from point-blank range before delighting Madristas with his trademark celebration.
The 20 year-old has made his transition to Spanish football look ridiculously easy with 13 goals and three assists in 13 games in all competitions since joining from Borussia Dortmund.
For an hour, Barcelona had been the better team but Carlo Ancelotti has a new ace in his ranks and Real were back on top (on goal difference) amidst massive celebrations.
Elsewhere, it may be early in the campaign but the body blow that rock bottom Almeria suffered on Saturday afternoon may be one they struggle to recover from even now, although the La Liga betting odds give them a fighting chance.
Still without a win, they were set to claim their fourth point of the season against newly promoted Las Palmas when Sory Kaba grabbed a stoppage time winner to sink the hosts.
Elation and despair in stoppage time around 800 kilometres apart.
At this point there were still seven La Liga fixtures to be played over the weekend.
Yet the main story had already been written by Bellingham – the boy wonder!
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