Sporting 0-2 Girona: the strangest defeat in the world — we lost, and El Molinón ended up applauding

What's up, mate? The unbeaten run is over: Real Sporting de Gijón 0, Girona 2. First loss, and on home turf too. And yet — weird to say — I left El Molinón less gutted than after the 0-0 snoozefest with Sabadell. Because there are defeats that crush you and defeats that tell you you're doing alright. This was the latter. Full breakdown in the video, and below the player ratings and why the crowd ended up applauding a loss.

⚽ Two shots, two goals: the City Group tax

The script was as brutal as it was simple: Sporting dominated, pinned them back and created chances; Girona had two attempts and scored twice. First one, 27th minute: Gazzaniga's clearance from deep, Asprilla — looked yards offside to me, just saying — pulls off a perfectly-weighted flick and chip worthy of a world-class talent (which is what the City Group's millions got them). Second, 76th minute, counter after we failed to finish: Carles Pérez bears down, Pablo Vázquez commits, slips like he's on a banana skin — seriously, check the replay — and the ex-Barcelona lad, one-on-one on the edge, tucks it away beautifully. Poor Yáñez had no chance with either. Us? Guille Rosas' left foot tickling the bar in the second minute, a crystal-clear chance right before half-time, Loum's thunderbolt that the keeper somehow kept out, Pablo Vázquez inches away from connecting properly twice, Cuenca getting stuck in the chaos, Antonio Casas' header shaving the post… Gazzaniga was comfortably Girona's best player: an assist and no end of goal-line saves. That's how you get a 0-2 scoreline that doesn't match what actually happened.

🔎 Elopi23's player ratings

Yáñez, blameless on both: first one and the finish quality puts him in a no-win situation and nobody stops the second. Guille Rosas, another top performance — an absolute animal, his level over these four matchdays has been seriously high. Duñabeitia and Pablo Vázquez, solid game despite that slip in the replay, battling away with the 6'8" giant Girona brought on in the second half who, fair play, was both good and quick — ended up both pushing forward trying to finish everything. Cuenca, decent. Nacho Martín, brilliant from the lad until his legs ran out, playing out from the back with a composure that's a joy to watch. Corredera… I'm really growing fond of him: box-to-box, all over the pitch, going toe-to-toe with the big fella, absolute workhorse. Nikita, playful and spicy but missing that spark from last week: couldn't get a cross in. Gelabert, a bit muted — lacking that fluidity and magic from last season, though he's grafting; his best days will come. Konrad, greyest player in the first half, and credit to Larcamón for spotting it and hauling him off AT HALF-TIME — one for the Argentine gaffer. Otero, pure grit and grafting all over the pitch without getting a whistle (won't say it was decisive, but the decisions kept going one way…), though yesterday he got a bit too obsessed with finishing everything himself.

Off the bench: Sarco, gets better every game — proper scrappy, drifting out wide, swapping roles with Otero; he's developing at a real pace. Pablín García hunting the box and swinging in crosses, Loum finding his rhythm (and that cracking long-range effort that got that brilliant save), Antonio Casas with that header narrowly missing the post. And a special mention: BRUNO RUBIO'S DEBUT, academy lad, came on when we were chasing the game and the ball didn't burn his feet — good first touch, getting forward, hungry. Not much more you can ask from a kid making his bow. Fingers crossed he gets more minutes. 👶🔴⚪

🎬 What's coming: the INSIDE El Molinón video

And the big announcement: yesterday I was inside El Molinón from 12:30pm — dressing rooms, behind-the-scenes build-up, pitch-side warm-ups, the match from above the dugout… THE LOT captured for a special video I'm hoping to have out by Wednesday at the latest (cheers to Sporting for making it easy, and Siroko for getting us in there). I also got a shirt signed by the entire squad: tell me in the comments what I should do with it — raffle it on Instagram or stick it up here in the background? You lot decide. By the way: the shirt I'm wearing in the video I got printed with "ELOPI23" at the actual Siroko shop in Gijón — you pick whatever number you want, use the code and job done; all the info in the Sporting Store.

Sunday summary: 7 out of 12, unbeaten run over but best performance of the season, and next week it's back home against Eldense — one of those "must-wins" to turn this good form into actual points. Heads up, lads. PUXA SPORTING. 🔴⚪