“Three times Galisteo”
Villarreal turned Friday’s contest for third place into a 4-1 victory at Girona, with Sergio Galisteo scoring a first-half hat-trick and José Luis Bueno adding a fourth.
“We had the sharper edge,” Sergio Galisteo might have said after a performance that left little room for dispute. On Friday, Villarreal won 4-1 at Girona in the Spanish First Division, and Galisteo’s three goals had already made the afternoon their own before the interval.
Our preview had framed the meeting as a direct contest for third place, with Villarreal one point ahead and both sides expected to keep faith with familiar shapes. The absences were real—Girona were without goalkeeper Rareş Breaz, while Villarreal missed Francesco Meazzini and Íñigo Calvo—but the match was decided less by the teams’ starting outlines than by Villarreal’s ability to answer Girona’s brief resistance. Ionuţ Caravasile levelled two minutes after Galisteo’s opening goal; Galisteo struck again three minutes later, then completed his hat-trick on the stroke of half-time.
His first goal was a high shot through the middle; his second went along the ground from close range, while the third was hit high. José Luis Bueno settled the score in the 62nd minute with another close-range effort along the ground. The sequence made a tense contest feel, by the break, like a statement from the visitors.
That contribution was an emphatic answer to any question about his place in the side. Girona had more of the ball and made the visiting goalkeeper work, but could not turn that activity into a closer score. Caravasile, one of the duels highlighted in our preview, found the net; the other decisive contest belonged to Villarreal’s attack.
Villarreal, third, had been one point above fourth-placed Girona; the 4-1 result gives the visitors a more substantial advantage in the contest between them. For Girona, the evening’s promise ended in a reminder that possession and pressure count for little when the other side has Galisteo in this sort of mood.