Girona can move ahead in the Spanish league race with title rivals in Saudi Arabia for Super Cup
FILE - Girona’s Artem Dovbyk, left, celebrates with teammates during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Girona at the Olimpic Lluis Companys stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023. While Real Madrid vies for the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, Girona has its chance to move ahead of the heavy favorite in their Spanish league title chase. Girona aims to keep up its superb season that has stunned rivals and far exceeded expectations when it visits lowly Almeria to start the second half of the league season on Sunday. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort, File)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — While Real Madrid vies for the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, Girona has a chance to move ahead of its rival in the Spanish league title chase.
Girona aims to keep up i ts surprising title challenge when it visits lowly Almeria to start the second half of the league season on Sunday.
The Catalan club partly owned by Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi ownership and coached by Míchel Sánchez is level on points with Madrid at the top of the table.
Girona has earned 15 wins, including recent victories over both Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, in 19 rounds to go with just one loss to Madrid back in September. Those wins over the perennial contenders helped Girona open gaps of seven points over Barcelona and 10 points over Atletico.
Almeria, meanwhile, sits at the bottom of the standings after having gone winless through all 19 rounds in its first season back in the topflight.
Girona has seven wins and two draws on road and leads the league in scoring with 46 goals — six more than Madrid — with Ukraine striker Artem Dobyk leading this team with 11 goals.
While Míchel’s side had proven to be deep in previously undiscovered talent, its defense has been thinned after apparently minor injuries to Éric García and David López.
“We have a deep enough team to compete in two competitions,” Míchel said after Sunday’s 2-0 win over Elche to reach the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey. “We don’t have the obligation to win either, but are excited to go for both.”
Madrid is set to play in the final of the Spanish Super Cup against either Barcelona or Osasuna after it beat Atletico 5-3 after extra time in Riyadh on Wednesday. Barcelona plays Osasuna in the other semifinal on Thursday. The Super Cup participants will play their postponed league games for this round in three weeks.
BASQUE DERBY
Athletic Bilbao hosts Real Sociedad in a Basque Country derby on Saturday with the two regional rivals near the top of the table and both missing important players because of international competitions.
Sociedad will be without its top playmaker with Japan forward Takefusa Kubo playing at the Asian Cup in Qatar. Mali defender Hamari Traoré and Nigeria striker Umar Sadiq will also be gone at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
Bilbao will be without forward Iñaki Williams, who is also at the Africa Cup playing for Ghana.
Bilbao is quietly enjoying an excellent season and has risen into fourth place, level on points with Atletico, and in the mix for Spain’s Champions League berths that go to the top four finishers.
Sociedad, meanwhile, is just six points behind in sixth place and needs to avoid a loss to its top rival to stay close to the Champions League positions.
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