Barcelona will finish Matchday 24 in second place in the _La Liga_ table and two points behind the leaders thanks to a painful 2-1 defeat in the Catalan derby away to Girona at _Montilivi_ on Monday night. After dominating the first half and failing to convert several giant chances, the _Blaugrana_ fell apart in the second half despite taking the lead and conceded a controversial late goal to drop all three points on the road.
* Barça played a really good first half, dominating the ball and creating excellent offense throughout the period. They had huge chances of all types, but the finishing just let them down. Raphinha missed a major opportunity inside the box and later hit the post, and Lamine Yamal wasted a clear one-on-one before missing the biggest chance of the half when he hit the post from the penalty spot.
* The visitors were also really good tactically: the offside trap worked, Flick made subtle but important tweaks that improved the defensive structure (like having both full-backs stay back and choose their moments to attack and playing Dani Olmo as a true pivot alongside Frenkie de Jong), and the _Blaugrana_ were better than Girona in every aspect of the game. But the finishing was a major issue, and the game was somehow goalless at the break even though Barça should have been up by at least three goals.
* Barça weren’t as sharp to begin the second half and started to lose the ball in bad positions, allowing Girona to counter-attack and create some important chances on the break. Before the home team could cause any damage, however, Barça finally took the lead as Pau Cubarsí headed home a cross from Jules Kounde.
* The _Blaugrana_ joy was short-lived, though, as Thomas Lemar scored a tap-in just two minutes later and tied the game at the hour mark. That goal kicked off an absolute blitz by the hosts, who were dominant in every aspect and created even more big chances. Barça somehow didn’t concede thanks to the offside flag and a few exceptional interventions from Joan Garcia, and they were very lucky to not be losing going into the final 15 minutes of the contest.
* Barça managed to slow down Girona’s momentum and regain some control of the contest, but didn’t create a real chance for a winner and were punished at the end when Fran Beltrán scored from outside the box to complete the home team’s comeback. There was a possible foul on Jules Kounde in the buildup that both the referee and VAR ignored, but what else is new.
* Stoppage time was incredibly chaotic as Barça chased a late equalizer, and Ronald Araujo missed a great chance from a Yamal cross while Robert Lewandowski had a goal correctly disallowed for offside. There was a penalty shout when Frenkie de Jong went down in the box that was correctly not given, and Joel Roca was shown a straight red for a horrific tackle on Yamal. Barça tried until the very end but couldn’t find the net again, and Girona celebrated as if they’d won a trophy at the final whistle.
* This is a painful loss and Barça should have won this one by halftime given the quality of their first half performance and the amount of huge chances they missed, but the second half collapse is inexcusable and Girona deserved the win based on their performance in the final period.
* There’s a lot of soul-searching to be done and everyone, from the players to Hansi Flick, needs to be accountable and do their part in helping rescue Barça from a really tough situation. This, right now, is just not good enough.
See More:
* [Barcelona Match Recaps](/barcelona-match-recaps)
* [Barcelona: La Liga](/barcelona-la-liga)
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