Fighting to maintain their top-flight status for another season, Girona carved out the first chances in the opening eight minutes. Bryan Gil wandered in off the right wing and sent a low curling effort inches wide of the post, before Atleti’s failed attempts to clear a free-kick resulted in Vitor Reis executing a bicycle kick, which was held well by Jan Oblak.
Míchel couldn’t believe his side weren’t in front soon after as Joel Roca’s cross put the ball on a plate for Gil, but somehow his header from six yards went well wide. Inevitably, the Blanquivermells were punished for those misses midway through the half.
After 20 minutes, Antoine Griezmann, playing his final home game on his 500th Atleti appearance, gave them a warning sign when latching onto an Ademola Lookman through ball, but had his effort from a tight angle denied by Paulo Gazzaniga.
And a minute later, the Atleti attackers reversed their roles, as the Frenchman squared the ball across goal for Lookman to tap home.
The ball was remaining glued to Oblak’s gloves as Viktor Tsygankov and Azzedine Ounahi led the visitors’ response with decent strikes, before the Slovenian’s fingertips denied Alex Moreno after a fine run.
At the other end, Griezmann was again thwarted by the goalkeeper, and Marc Pubill sent a promising chance skyward before one final Tsygankov chance in a thrilling first half was denied by Oblak to preserve the hosts’ lead at half time.
Without an away win since January, Girona began their uphill battle in the second half, with Arnau Martínez dragging a shot across goal. And though Lookman produced a similar effort minutes later and Álex Baena stung Gazzaniga’s gloves following a corner, the Catalan side kept the hosts penned in.
Then, shortly before the hour mark, Tsygankov took the ball in his stride, but another clean hit flew too close to Oblak.
The goalkeeper’s efforts would not have been so crucial if Los Colchoneros had opened a two-goal cushion, something Thiago Almada should have done with a quarter of the match to go, but he instead tried to tee up Griezmann for the perfect parting gift, only for the forward to miss the target.
Oblak added another smart stop to his collection by getting something behind a thumping half-volley from Ounahi, before Diego Simeone gave Girona’s defence further cause for concern by throwing on Alexander Sørloth, whose attempt at a one-man counter-attack ended with his shot trickling just wide.
There was to be no farewell goal at Estadio Metropolitano for Griezmann, but after another top-class Oblak stop to deny Ounahi, Atleti had done enough for a 15th home win of the campaign.
After nine matches without victory, Girona must win on the final day and hope other results go their way in order to stay up.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid)
