Girona

Ground: Estadi Municipal Montilivi

Visits: 1

Date: 21st February 2016

Match: Girona - Real Oviedo 1-1 (Segunda División)

Attendance: 4 319

For Sunday I had decided to attend my first ever game in Segunda División. The city of Girona (pop. 98 000) is situated around 100 km north of Barcelona and at 17.00 on Sunday afternoon Girona FC hosted Real Oviedo. From Barcelona Sants the journey to Girona is a short one (less than an hour) and 11.30 I was in Girona. My hotel was then only a short walk from the train station. After checking in I made a sightseeing tour of the old city. At Placa de Catalunya there was a flee market but this time I didn´t buy anything. The weather this Sunday afternoon was really nice with 17-18 °C and sunshine. Walking in the narrow alleys towards the cathedral life felt quite nice. As so often is the case the old city of any town is well worth a visit. After all the walking I was getting hungry and I enjoyed a late lunch at one of the many restaurant in the old city. I then went back to my hotel for a short rest before setting off for the ground.

From my hotel it would, according to Google, take around 30 minutes to walk to the ground. I looked at local buses and found one at 15.31 which would take me within a 10-minute walk from the ground. 20 minutes later I was outside Estadi Municipal Montilivi, the home of Girona FC. As I arrived the coach carrying Real Oviedo arrived as well. The away supporters gathered and cheered their players as the left the coach. At the ticket office the language skills were as poor as in most other places in Spain but I managed to buy a ticket anyway. I bought a ticket, costing me 20 Euros, for the Preferente (east stand) and an hour before kick-off the turnstiles opened. My seat was in the top row and quite close to the away section. Estadi Municipal Montilivi was opened in 1970 and has a capacity of 9 500. The only covered stand is the main (west) stand but thankfully no rain forecasted for the afternoon. In total 4 400, including 100 or so away fans, had made it to Estadi Municipal Montilivi for this game. Real Oviedo are third in the table and have a good chance of gaining promotion to Primera División. It was Girona who had most of the play in the first half but no goals at half-time. In the 59th minute Real Oviedo was awarded a penalty, 0-1 and massive celebrations in the away section. Girona pressed on for an equalizer and in the 77th minute they scored form a stunning free-kick to make it 1-1. Both teams were apparently desperate for three points. The last 10 minutes were end to end stuff and this period was by far the most exciting in the game. No more goals though and my first ever game in Segunda División ended 1-1. Since I didn´t want to wait for 50 minutes I decided to walk back to my hotel. The walk "only" took me 25 minutes meaning I was in my room by 19.15. An hour later I had something to eat and drink at a nearby cafe before returning to my hotel. Being tired I went to bed shortly after 10pm and quickly fell asleep.

placa de catalunya