Paulo Gazzaniga’s historic hat-trick leaves Athletic to pay the penalty | Sid Lowe
Girona’s goalkeeper, once of Gillingham, saved three penalties against Athletic in a game that defied belief
“I don’t remember a game like it,” Paulo Gazzaniga said. And nor does anyone else. Nobody had done done what he had just done: not his brother Gianfranco, not his dad Daniel, goalkeepers like him, not anyone, not here.
“Incredible,” Michel Sánchez called it; Ernesto Valverde went for “farcical”. When Girona and Athletic’s coaches embraced at the end of a sunny Sunday afternoon, the last of 27 shots having finally settled a chaotic game in Catalonia, a 99th-minute winner from the best striker Montilivi has seen still overshadowed by three that didn’t go in, Valverde wore a shrug and a smile that said silly, innit. Which is was. It was also brilliant. And bad. And fun, which football’s meant to be.
