The Catalonian high-flyers were cheered on by a fervent crowd inside the Estadi Montilivi, and Artem Dovbyk gave the Blanquivermells more encouragement after seeing his early effort saved by Giorgi Mamardashvili. The Ukrainian’s effort did not count after being in an offside position but signalled the hosts’ intent in the opening minute.
Míchel's side were dealt an early blow though when Yangel Herrera came off injured with what appeared to be a hamstring problem and was replaced by Barcelona loanee Pablo Torre.
Los Ches were struggling to cope with the hosts' intensity but had the best chance of the half when Fran Pérez saw his brilliant angled strike go just wide of the far post after being teed up by Dimitri Foulquier.
Girona had the ball in the back of the net shortly before the break, as Dovbyk reacted quickest to a loose ball from Viktor Tsyhankov’s free-kick. However, the effort was correctly ruled out for offside, much to Míchel’s frustration. Rubén Baraja would have been the happier of the two managers heading into HT, after standing firm and leaving the hosts without an attempt on target.
That statistic was wiped out inside the opening five minutes of the second half when Aleix García let fly from the edge of the box, with his shot parried to safety by Mamardashvili. The Georgian made an even better stop moments later with a superb one-handed save to push away another strike from the Girona skipper.
It proved to be a crucial stop, as Los Ches broke the deadlock seconds later at the end of a blistering counter-attack through Duro. The Valencia number nine raced through one-on-one with Paulo Gazzaniga and delivered a sublime chip over the Argentine in the 57th minute, stunning the home supporters.
And it was almost two when Foulquier opened up his body and saw his long-range strike pushed away by Gazzaniga.
It looked like the hosts were heading for defeat until Cristhian Stuani made a telling contribution from the bench, as the Uruguayan ghosted in unmarked at the far post to apply the finish from Yan Couto’s enticing cross and finally break Los Che’s resistance in the 83rd minute.
That combination worked again to devastating effect in the 88th minute, with the former Middlesbrough man applying another clinical close-range finish from Couto’s cross to dramatically seal all three points.
Sávio thought he had added extra gloss to the scoreline late on with a ferocious first-time finish, but a VAR review ruled this out for offside.
This result will serve as a wake-up call to the LaLiga big-hitters and shows that Girona mean business, as they seek to elbow their way past some of the big boys. Meanwhile, this was a desperately disappointing afternoon for Valencia, who are now winless in each of their last seven LaLiga games.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Cristhian Stuani (Girona)
