Girona vs Feyenoord

Estadio Municipal de Montilivi sets the stage for a first-ever UEFA Champions League meeting between Girona and Feyenoord.

Girona’s historic third-place finish in La Liga last term gave them a taste of Champions League football for the first time a fortnight ago, only for goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga to score a 90th-minute own goal in his side’s demoralizing 1-0 defeat at Paris Saint-Germain. Significantly disrupted by that late collapse in France, Michel’s men have continued to stutter on the domestic front, picking up just one point from their three subsequent league outings (D1, L2). A lack of firepower in attack following Artem Dovbyk’s big-money transfer to Roma saw the Catalan outfit score just twice in their last five competitive matches, casting further doubt on their hopes of claiming an unprecedented first Champions League win. Girona can draw confidence from keeping a clean sheet in two of their three home games in La Liga this season (W1, D1, L1).

On the other hand, Feyenoord will aim to banish the demons of an embarrassing 4-0 home defeat to defending Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen in the first Champions League round. Though they immediately recovered from that upset with a 2-0 win against NAC Breda, a 1-1 home draw against Dutch minnows NEC last weekend clipped Feyenoord’s wings. There’s a more pressing matter ‘De Stadionclub’ must attend to this week, as they seek their first away win in the Champions League since squeaking past Newcastle United 1-0 in 2002. They’ve since lost all ten such fixtures, including qualifiers! As if that’s not concerning enough, they’ve suffered defeats on their last three European visits to Spanish clubs, conceding 2+ goals on each occasion.