Caravasile plays Girona like a guitar
The Romanian winger scored one and made two as Girona won 4-1 at Alavés, a performance of nine parts craft to one part sweat.
There are evenings when a footballer does not so much play a match as compose it, note by note, and let the rest of us listen. Mendizorroza has seen its share of noise and fury down the years, but on Friday night the old ground was treated to something quieter and more dangerous: a winger in full command of his instrument, bending the game this way and that until Alavés had no answer but the final whistle.
Girona won 4-1, and the scoreline is honest without being cruel. Alavés had their spells, their ambition, their shape changed for the occasion, and they will point to possession and honest running. But matches like this are decided by the man who sees the door before it opens, and Girona have one of those on the right flank.
Ionuţ Caravasile was the best player on the pitch by a distance, and the numbers merely confirm what the eye already knew: a goal, two assists, four key passes, four tackles won, four dribbles, and fourteen and a half kilometres of running. A winger who tackles like a defender and passes like a playmaker is a rare and awkward thing to play against, and Alavés spent the evening discovering exactly how awkward.
Adrian Muqaj, the loan signing from Hertha Berlin, gave Girona their other attacking edge and scored once himself before making way late on. Jofre Ramos came off the bench and immediately set about the tired legs in front of him, and Ferran Izquierdo, another substitute, added a goal of his own. Gustavo Henrique, all industry in the middle, contributed an assist. This was a Girona performance with many hands in it, but one pair conducting.
For Alavés there was Endika Goti, who scored and ran his fourteen kilometres without complaint, and Raúl, who made a goal and left the field to applause. Pablo Soto picked the ball out of his net four times, and David Heredia's evening ended in a booking and an early substitution. The home side changed their shape and their personnel, and still the tide came.
What pleases Girona most is the manner of it: a side that can win ugly learning to win beautifully, a Romanian on the right who has made this club his home since arriving from Watford, and a night in Vitoria that will be remembered for the music rather than the margin.