LaLiga’s curtain raiser between Girona and Rayo Vallecano was all about one man – Paulo Gazzaniga.
The two sides kicked things off in Spain on Friday evening and it wasn’t long before the former Tottenham and Southampton man gifted Rayo the lead.
When a ball was played back to him in the Girona era he completely botched his pass back out, shifting it the ball along the six-yard box for Jorge de Frutos to tap into an empty net.
Rayo went 2-0 up two minutes later via Álvaro García, and then in the final minute of the half Gazzaniga made it game over.
Again with a pass back, he tried to switch back past the pressing De Frutos, only to be tackled by him.
Gazzaniga then took down the attacker in the box, resulting in a blatant red card and penalty that Izi Palazon dispatched.
The Argentine’s replacement, Vladyslav Krapyvtsov, couldn’t do anything about the penalty, but at least kept a second half clean sheet for Girona in a match that ended 3-1 to Rayo.
Gazzaniga’s performance instantly drew comparison’s to Jonathan Woodgate’s Real Madrid debut in 2005 where he scored an own-goal and was sent off.
Leave a Reply