Bellingham and Dobvyk. But also Stuani, Rodrygo or Joselu. This season witnesses their names again and again. They are the top scorers of the two teams that, in principle, are fighting to win La Liga this season. On the one hand, Real Madrid. The whites are experiencing a sweet time in the league competition, with only one defeat compared to four draws and a creditable 18 victories from 23 games played.
But his biggest nightmare is a Catalan team. And it is not its historical rival. A surprising Girona fights them day in and day out to be at the top of the standings. Many teams without titles are capable of placing themselves in the Champions zone when the sun hits hard in August, but few are able to maintain the pace at Christmas. Only Real Madrid reached the figure of 55 points at this point in the championship.
Ancelotti’s team takes the points, but Míchel’s pupils take the goals. Girona is six goals away from shattering the record it left last season. If the classification were by goals and not by points, first and second would change roles. Barça is in third place with 47 goals, and Atlético follows with 45.
Girona is right. And a lot. Their expected goals (also called xG, it is the probability that a chance will be a goal depending on how the play went) is much lower than the times they have changed the score in their favor. Not everything is so sweet further south in Catalonia. Barça leads the xG statistics well above the leading teams in the classification. Real Madrid, like Girona, also scores a lower number of expected goals than the goals they have scored.
Collective work with two flashes
That Girona and Real Madrid have reached, at this point in the championship, such a scoring figure is explained by the number of players who have seen their hunger for goals satisfied at the back of the net. Seven players, three of Míchel’s and four of Ancelotti’s, have scored more than five goals in the league this season. But behind this, many times there is a magical pass, or a fortuitous one, from a teammate that gives away a goal. Eight players have made four or more assists during these 23 days, four each team.
Some scandalous numbers that, when extrapolated to Europe, continue to lead the Spanish league, but not the general leadership. The figures that mark, in a race for the top scorer of the national championship, the Ukrainian Dovbyk and the Englishman Bellingham, who are joined by the Spanish Mayoral for the joy of Getafe, collide with names associated with the goal, such as the classics Kane (Bayern of Munich) and Mbappé (PSG), as well as Lautaro Martínez Inter), Guirassy (Stuttgart), Openda (Leipzig), Haaland (Manchester City) or Salah (Liverpool).
Regarding how they take advantage of the minutes they have, despite the fact that there are more whites who average more expected goals and expected assists per game (the probability of a goal from a pass that ends in a shot), two red and whites (the aforementioned Dobvyk and the incombustible Stuani ) rank at the top of expected goals and assists per game.
The comebacks for the flag
If these teams are characterized by something, it is by the winning mentality they show in each match. The data highlights that they receive many goals shortly after starting the match. Real Madrid have conceded a third of their goals in the first 15 minutes. Girona, almost half after half an hour of play.
But the game for them does not end there. The referee and not the head is the one who decides when the match ends. This is shown by the reactions after both teams were on the bench: from minutes 45 to 75, Ancelotti introduced the idea to his boys of scoring. Almost half of the white goals have been scored in this period. Girona, for its part, puts it into fifth gear when the fourth referee begins to prepare the stoppage time screen,
Not to mention the discount times. Both teams have only conceded three goals (two for Girona and only one for Madrid) beyond the 90th minute, when there is little reaction time. However, the whites have seen the goal up to four times after the ’90+’ was shown, compared to three for Girona.
Real Madrid struck first in the first leg, with a heavy 3-0 at the end of September that still ranks as Girona’s only defeat. But the numbers indicate that animation and emotion can characterize today’s day.
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