Girona beat Barcelona 4-2 to return to the top of the La Liga standings. At the end of the match of the 16th stage, coach Javi Hernandez spoke about the opening of the season in the Spanish championship.

>> La Liga: Girona, huge win over Barcelona

Xavi: “Girona should be congratulated. He is ahead of us by seven points”

The Barcelona manager explained what went wrong in Sunday night’s game and praised Michel’s side, who he said deserved to finish top.

“Girona should be congratulated for what it is doing. Especially today. They are at the top of the ranking. They are seven points ahead of us and deservedly so. It was a balanced match. If Barca had won, we would have said it was fair. I think I fired 31 times.

Maybe we were affected by mistakes in defense. There are details. They have a good team and a great approach. It was an elimination game, whoever got there hit first. It’s a tough blow because we were hoping to get within two points of Real Madrid and one point of Girona.

This is the reality of our club. This is “Barca” in the process of formation. These things happen when you build. You take one step back to take two steps forward. I had a bad result today, but I didn’t play bad.

Last year we suffered a lot, but we won two titles. On other days we didn’t concede a single goal against Atlético, but today we conceded four. This is football. The difference was in defensive strength and ineffectiveness.

Girona is the best team I have ever seen. They are no longer a surprise, they are contenders for the title. “Girona” has more than 7 points, “Madrid” – 5, but we will continue the fight”, – Javi Hernandezquoted by Marca.

Ukrainian Artem Dovbyk (’12) opened the scoring against Girona, but Barcelona responded immediately, and Robert Lewandowski (’19) restored parity. Miguel Gutierrez (’40) put Girona back in front, also setting up the score in the first half.

In the second half, the visitors continued to attack, and Valeri (’80) scored 3:1 from a pass from Stuani, with the first touch of the ball.

In the end, “Barcelona” reduced the difference thanks to Gundogan (’90+2), but the last word still remained with the guests and Stuani (’90+5) scored the 4th goal.

La Liga, stage 16

Getafe – Valencia 1-0

Alaves – Las Palmas 0-1

Real Betis – Real Madrid 1-1

Villarreal – Real Sociedad 0-3

Mallorca – Sevilla 1-0

Atletico Madrid – Almeria 2-1

Granada – Bilbao / suspended

Cadiz – Osasuna 1-1

Barcelona – Girona 2-4

Rayo Vallecano – Celta Vigo / Monday, 22:00

La Liga, standings

1. Girona 41p

2. Real Madrid 39b

3. Atletico Madrid 34b

4. FC Barcelona 34b

5. Real Sociedad 29b

6. Athletic Bilbao 28p etc.