{"id":29671,"date":"2025-12-01T12:04:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=29671"},"modified":"2025-12-01T12:04:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:04:22","slug":"real-madrid-title-hopes-dented-at-girona-in-third-straight-draw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=29671","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid title hopes dented at Girona in third straight draw"},"content":{"rendered":"
Real Madrid were held to a third consecutive La Liga draw in a 1-1 tie at Girona on Sunday, allowing Barcelona to retain pole position.<\/p>\n

Azzedine Ounahi fired the hosts into a surprise lead before half-time, with Kylian Mbappe earning Madrid a point from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n

After Barcelona beat Alaves on Saturday to move top of the table, Madrid needed a victory at Girona to reclaim top spot but now sit second, a point behind the champions.<\/p>\n

Earlier Alberto Moleiro helped Villarreal, third, move back ahead of fourth-place Atletico Madrid with a stoppage time winner in a 3-2 victory at Real Sociedad.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid’s draw increases the pressure on Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, after recent rumours suggesting his future is insecure in the Madrid dugout.<\/p>\n

“We are up there, it’s all very even, it’s a long season and we have to continue,” Alonso told reporters.<\/p>\n

“I liked the reaction from the players. It was not enough to turn it around but we were close, and we have to continue with the unity we have, being self-critical enough, and wanting to win away from home.”<\/p>\n

Madrid travel to face Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday for a fourth consecutive league match on the road, a game moved because of the club’s participation in the Spanish Super Cup in January.<\/p>\n

“The table will be hard-fought, there will be lots of movement,” added Alonso.<\/p>\n

Mbappe and Arda Guler fired off target for Madrid early on in a hotly-contested but scrappy clash, in front of a raucous home crowd.<\/p>\n

French superstar Mbappe had a goal ruled out for handball moments before Morocco international Ounahi fired Girona ahead, rifling home from just inside the area to stun their illustrious visitors.<\/p>\n

Catalan minnows Girona, 18th, have twice beaten Real Madrid at Montilivi since making their top flight debut in 2017 and for a while it looked like they were going to manage it again.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois made a stunning save to tip away Vanat’s drive across goal before Los Blancos fought back.<\/p>\n

After having a goal disallowed for offside Vinicius was clumsily felled in the box by Hugo Rincon.<\/p>\n

Mbappe smashed the resulting penalty into the bottom left corner past Gazzaniga’s dive for his 14th La Liga goal of the campaign.<\/p>\n

“Absolutely not the result we wanted tonight, but the league is still on and very long,” wrote Mbappe on social media network Instagram.<\/p>\n

“We need to change this dynamic and show who we are as a team.”<\/p>\n

Keeping the pressure on\u00a0<\/p>\n

Villarreal playmaker Moleiro netted twice in the second half of a thrilling game in San Sebastian.<\/p>\n

Villarreal secured their fifth consecutive league win to stay firmly in the Spanish title fight.<\/p>\n

Ayoze Perez sent the visitors ahead midway through the first half and teed up Moleiro for Villarreal’s second soon after the break.<\/p>\n

Real Sociedad fought back strongly, with Carlos Soler netting on the hour mark.<\/p>\n

The Basque side ramped up the pressure and levelled in the final stages through a spectacular Ander Barrenetxea free-kick.<\/p>\n

However, Moleiro had the final say, firing home in the 95th minute to maintain his team’s momentum.<\/p>\n

“We had that little bit of luck to get three very important points, as important as they were difficult (to get),” said Marcelino.<\/p>\n

“To get 32 points out of a possible 42 to me seems a stunning achievement.”<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Real Betis claimed a 2-0 win at Sevilla in a fiery derby clash which was briefly suspended after home fans threw bottles onto the pitch.<\/p>\n

The referee ordered players from the field in the 87th minute at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium, with the match resuming 15 minutes later as Betis held on to fifth place.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real Madrid were held to a third consecutive La Liga draw in a 1-1 tie at Girona on Sunday, allowing Barcelona to retain pole position. Azzedine Ounahi fired the hosts into a surprise lead before half-time, with Kylian Mbappe earning Madrid a point from the penalty spot. After Barcelona beat Alaves on Saturday to move […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}