BARCELONA: Girona coach Michel said on Friday he was a bit saddened by the end of a season that will be hard to repeat after his side finished third, their best ever league finish, and secured a place in the Champions League for the first time.

The Catalans closed their campaign with a 7-0 thrashing of relegated Granada as Artem Dovbyk retook the lead in the league’s goalscoring charts with a hat-trick in front of a jubilant home crowd. They finished with 81 points, a tally that only Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona have achieved in the current league format.

But Michel knows that Girona, who were only promoted to the top flight in 2022, will have to work hard to repeat their next season.

“I’m feeling a bit down because good things are over,” Michel told reporters. “We achieved something very important, the day-to-day of the season has been incredible. The counter starts to zero. We will start to fight for a great season to come and that’s what we will do from tomorrow onwards.

“We are growing and we have to continue taking steps forward. We have to lay the first stone, rest, recover, celebrate this great success and from next week, start planning to put Girona as high as possible.”

Amid a carnival atmosphere at the Montilivi Stadium that included fireworks and a concert, the Spanish manager was already thinking about the changes that will need to be implemented during the off season, with several players expected to leave the club.

“The dynamics of football tell you that it won’t be the same players or the same season, the problem is that many people will be missed,” he said.

On-loan Barcelona defender Eric Garcia broke the deadlock with his fifth goal of the campaign on the half-hour mark, before Viktor Tsygankov and a penalty from his Ukrainian compatriot Dovbyk ended the game as a contest before the interval.

Tsygankov netted again nine minutes into the second half, before Dovbyk and Cristhian Stuani piled the misery on second-bottom Granada, who saw Manchester United loanee Facundo Pellistri sent off for two yellow cards.

Dovbyk was usurped in the race for the Pichichi Trophy last weekend by Alexander Sorloth, when the Villarreal striker scored four goals in a 4-4 draw with Real Madrid.

But Dovbyk netted his second penalty of the match in the 90th minute to complete his treble, and move one goal ahead of Sorloth with his 24th of the La Liga season.

“The only thing we had at stake today was to make our fans proud, which is the main objective in every game,” Michel said. “Also to help Dovbyk for the possibility of being top scorer, those were the two objectives and I think we have achieved them. It is difficult because of Granada’s position, it is difficult, we understand them but we had to achieve our objectives.”

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2024