Girona fall into relegation zone as Atletico win on Griezmann's home farewell

[p]Fighting to maintain their top-flight status for another season, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/girona/nNNpcUSL/"]Girona[/a] carved out the first chances in the opening eight minutes. Bryan Gil wandered in off the right wing and sent a low curling effort inches wide of the post, before [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/atl-madrid/jaarqpLQ/"]Atleti[/a]’s failed attempts to clear a free-kick resulted in Vitor Reis executing a bicycle kick, which was held well by [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/oblak-jan/SYy8ZHN9/"]Jan Oblak[/a].[/p][p]Míchel couldn’t believe his side weren’t in front soon after as Joel Roca’s cross put the ball on a plate for Gil, but somehow his header from six yards went well wide. Inevitably, the Blanquivermells were punished for those misses midway through the half. [/p][p]After 20 minutes, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/griezmann-antoine/OxCa1jdT/"]Antoine Griezmann[/a], playing his final home game on his 500th Atleti appearance, gave them a warning sign when latching onto an Ademola Lookman through ball, but had his effort from a tight angle denied by Paulo Gazzaniga.[/p][image alt="Match momentum" id="c7f650b3-c5e8-451c-9223-f424af9ec6ba" credit-line="Opta by StatsPerform" guid="f3b56226-82f3-4e58-bac6-adc09237c1d9" original-width="1920" original-height="1080" /][p][b]And a minute later, the Atleti attackers reversed their roles, as the Frenchman squared the ball across goal for Lookman to tap home. [/b][/p][p]The ball was remaining glued to Oblak’s gloves as [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/tsygankov-viktor/8l99epoQ/"]Viktor Tsygankov[/a] and Azzedine Ounahi led the visitors’ response with decent strikes, before the Slovenian’s fingertips denied Alex Moreno after a fine run.[/p][p]At the other end, Griezmann was again thwarted by the goalkeeper, and Marc Pubill sent a promising chance skyward before one final Tsygankov chance in a thrilling first half was denied by Oblak to preserve the hosts’ lead at half time.[/p][p]Without an away win since January, Girona began their uphill battle in the second half, with Arnau Martínez dragging a shot across goal. And though Lookman produced a similar effort minutes later and Álex Baena stung Gazzaniga’s gloves following a corner, the Catalan side kept the hosts penned in.[/p][p]Then, shortly before the hour mark, Tsygankov took the ball in his stride, but another clean hit flew too close to Oblak.[/p][embed guid="8e296462-4b2f-4a61-997a-3f8c4f85528a" url="https://x.com/Atleti/status/2056087805235769596" social-type="twitter" /][p]The goalkeeper’s efforts would not have been so crucial if Los Colchoneros had opened a two-goal cushion, something Thiago Almada should have done with a quarter of the match to go, but he instead tried to tee up Griezmann for the perfect parting gift, only for the forward to miss the target.[/p][p]Oblak added another smart stop to his collection by getting something behind a thumping half-volley from Ounahi, before Diego Simeone gave Girona’s defence further cause for concern by throwing on Alexander Sørloth, whose attempt at a one-man counter-attack ended with his shot trickling just wide.[/p][p]There was to be no farewell goal at Estadio Metropolitano for Griezmann, but after another top-class Oblak stop to deny Ounahi, Atleti had done enough for a 15th home win of the campaign.[/p][image alt="Match stats" id="7a456626-6105-4138-9889-b45ff9fc52db" credit-line="Opta by StatsPerform" guid="7c03db4e-9f3b-4929-ba6d-f488096c1c2f" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p]After nine matches without victory, Girona must win on the final day and hope other results go their way in order to stay up.[/p][p][b]Flashscore Man of the Match: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/oblak-jan/SYy8ZHN9/"]Jan Oblak[/a] (Atlético Madrid)[/b][/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/atl-madrid-jaarqpLQ/girona-nNNpcUSL/?mid=n12plBB7"]Click here to see all the stats of the match[/a][/b][/p]