Alaves vs Girona Preview

La Liga’s Friday night fixture for this round sees this season’s surprise package Girona travel to the Estadio Mendizorrotza to face Alaves.

The hosts may not be catching the eye of many fans outside of Spain, unlike Girona, who made the headlines for recently beating Barcelona and qualifying for next year’s UEFA Champions League, still, they are undoubtedly having a solid season by their standards.

Just two seasons ago, they finished at the bottom of the league table with 31 points and a -34 goal difference (the worst in the league that season). But this year, they are sitting comfortably in mid-table and are ten points better than their total points haul in their last La Liga season with four games left to play.

After his side’s 1-0 win over Valencia last week which secured their place in La Liga, head coach Luis Garcia said: “I am very happy, celebrating a stay with this newly promoted Deportivo Alavés exceeds all my expectations. A team with the lowest salary limit; I am very proud of my boys”.

The win over Valencia also made it three wins in a row for the Spanish club who were considered the favourites for relegation when the season started. And so, with their season’s goal achieved, Garcia and his charges will now try to finish the season with a bang and win as many points as possible.

With a trip to the Santiago Bernabeu still to come after this game there is a chance that there aren’t many points left for them. Their focus will be on defeating Girona first and avenging their 3-0 loss to the visitors in the reverse fixture.

Meanwhile, the visitors will look to make it four wins in a row when they travel to Vitoria-Gasteiz on Friday. Their much-publicised 4-2 win over Barcelona not only moved them to second place in the table but also gave them a first league double over Xavi’s side.

They will now aim to continue their incredible trajectory as they attempt to finish above Barcelona this season–something they haven’t done before. But to achieve that feat, the visitors must cure their most recent travel sickness.

Michel’s side have lost five times away from home this season, with all five of those losses coming in their last six away games. They did win their last away game with a clean sheet, though, suggesting that their recent travel illness is behind them.

Other fixtures taking place this week in the Spanish Primera Liga:

Spanish Primera Liga Table