MADRID: With a home loss to a team that hadn’t won in more than two months, Real Madrid wasted all the hard work that had allowed them to move closer to Barcelona at the top of La Liga.

After winning five in a row to cut Barcelona’s lead to six points, Real were stunned 2-1 by relegation-threatened Girona at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Sunday, and are now nine points behind their rivals in third.

“It’s a shame that we let these points slip by,” Real Madrid coach Santiago Solari said. “We were coming off a good run and we were getting closer to the lead.”

Girona, who hadn’t won in 13 matches in all competitions and were coming off six straight losses, scored two second-half goals to reverse a 1-0 halftime deficit.

The Catalan club hadn’t won in the league since November and had entered the weekend one point above the relegation zone. Their last win in all competitions had been on December 5 against Alaves in the Copa del Rey.

Real looked on course for a sixth consecutive league win when Casemiro leapt highest to meet a Toni Kroos cross and head them in front midway through the first half.

But Girona, who had not won in the league since November, came out with a vengeance in the second half, levelling in the 65th minute with a Cristhian Stuani penalty after a handball by Sergio Ramos.

Spanish striker Cristian Portu gave Girona an unlikely lead 10 minutes later, nipping in front of Real’s lacklustre defender Marcelo to nod in on the rebound after Thibaut Courtois could only parry a shot from visiting forward Anthony Lozano.

Real substitutes Gareth Bale and Vinicius Jr each squandered opportunities to level and things got worse when Ramos earned a second yellow card in stoppage time and was sent off for the 25th time in club football.

Girona celebrated at the end as if they had secured survival as the victory pushed them four points clear of the bottom three.

Villarreal ended a 10-game winless streak in the league with a 3-0 rout of Sevilla, moving closer to leaving the relegation zone.They are now 18th in the 20-team standings, a point from safety.

Sevilla had their winless run extended to three league games, keeping their fourth place but seeing several other teams move closer to the final Champions League birth.

Valencia, who have drawn three in a row in the league, were held to a 0-0 home draw against Espanyol, and dropped to ninth place.

Eighth-placed Real Betis, winless in four matches in all competitions, drew 1-1 at home with sixth-placed Alaves.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2019