It has been a whirlwind of a debut campaign in the UEFA Champions League for Girona – but on Wednesday, on their home turf at the Estadi Montilivi, the fairytale will come to a close.
The Blanquivermells have picked up just three points – against Slovan Bratislava – along the way, but have given a good account of themselves on the continent’s biggest footballing stage. Progressing to the round-of-16, even via the play-offs, is mathematically impossible for the Catalan side.
But with the exception of a four-goal drubbing against PSV Eindhoven, each of their other losses have been by just one goal. Against PSG, Liverpool and AC Milan, Girona remarkably kept the scoreline to 1-0.
On Wednesday, Girona will welcome Arsenal to the Estadi Montilivi. Addressing the media ahead of the Blanquivermells’ final game of the 2024/25 European season, Míchel reflected that “it’s all gone by too fast,” but accepted that “it’s helped to grow the club so much.”
“I wouldn’t change anything,” he told reporters, “but I think that at the start of the season, we weren’t doing great things. We didn’t set up well for these competitions, and problems arose in other competitions.”
As for what his side will need to do if they’re to end their campaign on a high against the Gunners, Míchel suggested: “We have to give ourselves a bit of confidence, knowing that we’re competing against the best.”
“I’ve already said that we’ll need to polish the little things. We’ve got to train them more, and then we’ll be closer to victory.”
The 49-year-old added that “we must learn to take advantage of the little spaces. In those situations, the top teams are able to get too much from you and cause so much damage. It’s something that I, as a coach, need to improve and be able to feed back to my players.”