Robert Lewandowski looked to the sky, then down at the ball on the penalty spot, then at Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.
The Barcelona striker took three deep breaths, before stuttering his run-up and scoring as Gazzaniga dived the wrong way. He joined his team-mates celebrating in front of the travelling support. Barca were 2-1 up and looking good in a crucial game for their updated target for the season — finishing second behind Real Madrid.
After the restart, they came out in high spirits. They were on top and Girona were struggling to match them. It looked like this article was going to write itself: that Barca were going to take revenge for the damaging defeat their Catalan neighbours inflicted in December. Madrid were going to have to wait at least one more week to take back their La Liga crown.
Instead, the film we were watching went from V for Vendetta to Anatomy of a Fall in just 10 minutes.
Follow La Liga on The Athletic…
First, Sergi Roberto’s hands went straight to his head after a misplaced pass drifted into the path of La Liga top scorer Artem Dovbyk. The Ukrainian quickly found Portu — who had just come on — for the equaliser. Barca were suddenly spiralling. The bloodletting began.
Miguel Gutierrez, who had been enduring a torrid afternoon tracking Lamine Yamal, scored Girona’s third almost immediately after. Seven minutes later, Portu got another. Just under 10 minutes of madness changed the match completely — and the scoreline could have ended up far worse for Barca.
Girona missed a series of good chances in the closing quarter of an hour, while it was plain to see there would be no way back for Barca. After Girona’s fourth goal, some players stood with their hands on their hips looking at the sky in a defeatist pose. Others wore blank stares. On the Barca bench, Marcos Alonso was yawning.
The stands were rocking. Girona’s victory sealed Champions League qualification for the first time in their history, a remarkable achievement for a club with a budget for the season of €60million (£51.5m; $64.6m), compared to Madrid’s €600m and Barca’s €500m.
GO DEEPER
Inside Girona’s unlikely rise: Pep Guardiola’s brother, Manchester City and table football
The mood at Barca could not be more different, as Girona leapfrogged them into second in La Liga.
This was a chance for Barca to take some positive steps now Xavi is staying on as manager. Second place is important not just for the optics: it would also guarantee about €6million in prize money for taking part in next year’s Supercopa de Espana. That’s an important source of funding for the cash-strapped club.
It was also about making a counterpoint to Girona’s 4-2 win at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys at the end of 2023. That game hurt Barca and Xavi — how they were defeated as much as the result itself. Girona beat Barca at their own game, with a style of play many fans, and club executives, have been yearning for.
Araujo is one of the players Barca may have to sell this summer (Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images)
Xavi’s words after that game — claiming that Barcelona had played the better game, despite all evidence to the contrary — had not gone down well, either.
The context of December’s defeat helps explain what happened at the end of the match on Saturday. The Barcelona players collapsed. Marc-Andre ter Stegen stood for a few minutes in thought under his crossbar. He was instrumental in ensuring the defeat did not become even more embarrassing with a great save in the final minutes, while Jules Kounde was also decisive with a clearance off the line.
The goalkeeper walked towards the Barca fans, crestfallen, without daring to look at them while applauding their efforts. Then he went straight off down the tunnel, giving a further sense of his state of mind.
Out on the pitch, Girona’s players were celebrating effusively as the first bars of the Champions League anthem began to play. And there was another new achievement: before Saturday, no Catalan team had beaten Barcelona twice in a league season since Espanyol in the 1941-42 campaign.
Girona celebrates Champions League place next year with its anthem. They were playing in Second Division two years ago. pic.twitter.com/QYgWMWhT8N
— Laia Cervelló Herrero (@Laia_Cervello) May 4, 2024
Up in the VIP seats, Barca president Joan Laporta was reacting angrily. Media reports quoted him as shouting, “This cannot be!” in the general direction of sporting director Deco and vice-president Rafa Yuste.
The faces of the players parading through the mixed zone to the Barca team bus told a similar story. Roberto looked particularly shaken, aware that his mistake had set disaster in motion.
Xavi on the touchline at Girona on Saturday (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“We gave the game away,” Xavi eventually said in his post-match press conference. The manager had taken longer than usual to come out and speak.
“This has already happened to us in the two games against Real Madrid, against Girona, and against Paris Saint-Germain. It’s very difficult to compete like this, we have to improve a lot.
GO DEEPER
How Xavi’s ‘unfinished’ Barcelona project has gone so far… and what happens next
“I want to think positively, that this is part of the immaturity of many players, that they need to fail to improve — but I am very sad and very disappointed. Sadder than after the first game at Montjuic.”
As fate would have it, Barcelona secured last season’s league title in a Catalan derby, at the home of Espanyol. This season, they handed the title back to Madrid at the home of their ascendant neighbours to the north.
It felt like an incomprehensible defeat, but this was Barca’s season in microcosm: a team always capable of showing their best and worst sides in the same match.
(Top photo: Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images)
