April 25, (THEWILL) – Valentin Taty Castellanos made history on Tuesday, by becoming the first player, this century, to score four goals against Real Madrid in La Liga.
His impressive performance led Girona to a 4-2 victory, pushing Real Madrid’s arch-rivals Barcelona closer to the title. Madrid remain 11 points behind the Catalan side with only eight games left, and this defeat allows Barca to increase the gap when they meet Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday.
Castellanos opened the scoring in the 12th minute and doubled the lead 12 minutes later, putting Girona in charge. Although Vinicius Junior managed to pull one back for Madrid just after the half-hour mark, the team struggled without Karim Benzema, who was injured.
Girona continued to dominate in the second half, with Castellanos completing his hat-trick soon after hostilities resumed after half-time before the icing on the cake with a fourth goal two minutes after the hour mark. Five minutes before time, Lucas Vasquez made it 4-2 but it was always going to be Castellanos’ day.
The defeat against Girona is significant given how they fared without Benzema to lead the attack and Thibaut Courtois between the sticks. They face Almeria on Saturday and will hope to play better, while Girona takes on Sevilla on Monday. Castellanos’ outstanding performance will undoubtedly be remembered by football fans around the world for a long time.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
