Girona wins again to keep Spanish league lead after 2-1 comeback at Rayo

BARCELONA, Spain: Girona fought back for a 2-1 victory at Rayo Vallecano to ensure it kept its surprising lead of the Spanish league on Saturday.
Rayo went ahead from Álvaro García’s goal in the sixth minute. But Ukraine striker Artem Dovbyk equalized three minutes before halftime when he was set up by countryman Viktor Tsyhankov for his team-high seventh goal of the season.
Brazilian winger Sávio put the visitors ahead in the 65th when he finished off a Dovbyk shot that was blocked by goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.
Girona opened up a five-point gap over Real Madrid, which hosts Valencia later Saturday.
Girona, which two seasons ago was in the second division, is partly controlled by Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi ownership even though it has one of the lowest payrolls in the league of just 51 million euros ($54 million).
The numbers are impressive for the Catalonia team that is in only its fourth season in the top flight in club history.

It has 11 wins in 13 rounds, including six wins in seven road games, and has five come-from-behind victories. Its only loss came at home to Madrid in September.
“This team showed again that it does not give up, and we seem to play better when we are behind,” said midfielder Aleix García, who was called up by Spain this week.
García said that his team can now aspire to bigger things than merely avoiding a relegation battle, which was its main aim in previous seasons.
“We have bigger goals now.

We can dream,” García said. “We deserve to be where we are.

We have a very tight group. We are like a family.