Girona's sensational start to the season has made them surprise La Liga leaders. They are the real deal
There are fast starts, and there are season-defining starts. As time goes on, and as keep winning, it is becoming harder to tell which this is. Even just 12 games in, this is the first time in 20 years that a team other than , or Atletico Madrid have topped the table at this stage of a season. Advertisement Girona are also just the fifth team in ’s 94-year history to win 10 of their opening 12 matches — alongside the ‘big three’, and back in 1934.
At home to Mallorca — another match that Girona were able to dominate territorially — Blind’s touch map illustrates just how far forward he gets to help with the build-up play, even as one of the side’s most important defensive cogs. It is an attacking mantra that they maintain through thick and thin, even during their only defeat of the season to Real Madrid, a game in which they missed three big chances and hit the post.