At Camp Nou on Monday, title-chasing Barcelona were held to a 0-0 draw by Girona, putting them 13 points ahead of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga with 10 games left.
Despite the motivation of seeing the champions lose on Saturday against Villarreal, Barcelona were far from their best in a Catalan derby match, still reeling from their Clasico defeat by Madrid last week in the Copa del Rey.
In La Liga, Girona, a team in the middle of the table, played well and forced the Catalans to drop points at home for the third time this season.
As they attempt to win La Liga for the first time since 2019, Barcelona kept their 21st clean sheet in the top flight, but they were unable to fully capitalize on Real Madrid’s stumble.
Ansu Fati and Raphinha joined Robert Lewandowski, the league’s leading scorer, up front for Xavi, who was still without Pedri and Ousmane Dembele.
The Polish forward verged on opening the scoring on four minutes subsequent to being teed up by Fati, whipping a work onto the top of the net.
When Girona defender Santi Bueno almost put the ball into Barcelona’s own net, goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga quickly slid in and diverted the ball to safety.
The former Tottenham goalkeeper made excellent saves at his near post against Raphinha and Ronald Araujo’s corner kick.
Although goal-line technology is not used in La Liga, officials determined that the ball did not cross the line after Barcelona’s appeal that the ball had gone in. Barcelona kept looking for an early goal when Eric Garcia headed over from a corner early in the second half.
