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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Sid Lowe

Paulo Gazzaniga’s historic hat-trick leaves Athletic to pay the penalty

Paulo Gazzaniga saves from Ander Herrera to complete his hat-trick of saves.
Paulo Gazzaniga saves from Ander Herrera to complete his hat-trick of saves. Photograph: Eric Alonso/Getty Images

“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.

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