Girona vs Real Madrid

Estadio Municipal de Montilivi is the venue as Girona and Real Madrid lock horns in a top-table La Liga six-pointer.

Girona’s dream start to the new La Liga campaign continued in midweek as they came from behind to beat Villarreal 2-1 on the road and make it six wins in their opening seven league matches (D1). That triumph kept them at the top of the standings going into this round and extended the club’s record-breaking run of consecutive top-flight wins to six. ‘Los Blanquivermells’ won’t be fazed much by their opposition’s stature after hammering them 4-2 in April. On top of that, the Catalans are unbeaten in their last three La Liga H2Hs anywhere (W2, D1), highlighting the potential for another surprising result. Starting with that humbling of Real Madrid, Girona’s last seven top-flight matches at the Estadio Municipal de Montilivi have featured an average of a whopping 3.86 goals per game.

In the meantime, Real Madrid recovered from a disastrous 3-1 derby loss to Atletico Madrid last weekend with a 2-0 home win over newly-promoted Las Palmas in midweek La Liga action, racking up their sixth triumph in seven league fixtures this term (L1). With Vinicius Junior returning to the fold after a month on the sidelines, Carlo Ancelotti will relish his chances of guiding ‘Los Merengues’ to their first La Liga triumph over Granada since August 2018. But the Italian manager must address his side’s notoriously slow away starts that have seen the record-time Spanish champions concede within the opening five minutes of play on three of their last five La Liga travels (W4, L1). After David Alaba joined Eder Militao in the treatment room, Madrid’s defensive woes could go from bad to worse.