La Liga pacesetters Girona not ready to dream of Leicester despite flying start

The L-word appeared in Thursday’s Diari de Girona, the Catalan-language newspaper covering a provincial city where sporting greatness tends to visit mostly on a bike or in running shoes, the area being a favoured training base for star cyclists and athletes.

The L-word in this case is ‘Leicester’, football shorthand for when a club unexpectedly ascends to the summit of a major league. Leicester City remain an international inspiration: They were the upstarts with staying power, winners of the Premier League in 2016.

Girona are currently Leicester-lite, top of La Liga, where they might be temporarily overtaken by fellow Catalans Barcelona by the end of Friday, but who can continue to set the pace in the 2023/24 Spanish title race if they overcome Real Madrid at Estadi Montilivi 24 hours later.

There are sound reasons to believe. Girona and Barca are the only unbeaten sides after seven completed matchdays of the season so far. No side has scored more goals than Girona, and, as Madrid make their plans to combat the surprise leaders, they have specific grounds for concern.

Namely, that’s the quality of delivery of Girona’s crosses and the finishes from them. Two headed goals secured Girona’s comeback from 1-0 down to 2-1 and with it the historic top spot at Villarreal on Wednesday night, goals that will concern Carlo Ancelotti, the Real manager.

In last weekend’s derby at Atletico Madrid, his team were undone, 3-1, by a trio of goals from crosses. Defending crosses looks like a conspicuous Real Madrid frailty.

Taty Castellanos could testify that has been the case for a while. Last April he scored four goals, two headed, three from crosses, when Girona beat Madrid 4-2 in Catalonia, another encouraging precedent except that