FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Champions League - SK Sturm Graz v Girona - Worthersee Stadion, Klagenfurt, Austria - November 27, 2024 Girona coach Michel before the match REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic/File Photo
(Reuters) - Girona coach Michel hailed his side's return to winning ways with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Real Valladolid in LaLiga on Friday and called for consistency in the second half of the season.
Last season's surprise packages Girona bounced back from a six-game winless streak and four straight defeats with a dominant performance that put them eighth in the standings on 25 points, two points off the last European qualification spot.
"I have seen a very good team, especially in things that the team needed, more aggressiveness with and without the ball, the pressure after the loss has been top at all times, we have done very well," Michel told a press conference.
"(In past games) we dominated the ball but we were not strong in the box, especially in our own, we were not a team that pressed after losing the ball. Today the aggressiveness, the pressure was incredible, for me the best of the season."
Michel reflected on 2024 following Girona's third-place finish in LaLiga and their first Champions League appearance.
They have lost five of their six Champions League matches to stand a lowly 30th in the 36-team table and were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by fourth-tier Logrones.
"My goal is for the team to be in the top seven in the league standings, we will see if we are capable, we rely on our consistency in the game," Michel said.
"If we look at the first six months of 2024, I was very happy, the team was doing well, it was easy to work in that context. These last few months I haven't given my best version.
"It's wrong to be out of the Copa del Rey and far from qualifying for the Champions League next round, I have failed, I have to improve to coach a team like Girona."
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City, editing by Ed Osmond)
