A European dream to remember for Girona: 2024/25 La Liga season preview

With three men’s teams in action in La Liga this year, two of them in the Champions League, titles to fight for, and even a major stadium change, it’s promising to be another big year for Catalan football. 

It’s going to be a special year for Girona playing in the Champions League, Barcelona will be targeting major improvement after a summer of change, while Espanyol seek to avoid the drop and find some much-needed stability. 

Girona

This year will be one to remember in north Catalonia. An expanded Champions League format will mean that locals will get four home games to enjoy in the group stage, and beyond that, who knows. 

It’s also going to be a tough, grueling slog, at times. It often happens to La Liga teams that unexpectedly qualify for Europe that the squad does not have the depth or experience to fight on so many fronts and to deal with the inevitability of the emotionally draining nights that come with the thrill of playing at the highest level on the continent. This will be Girona’s biggest worry. 

But, such adventures are supposed to bring joy, and they should and will enjoy it. Some of their supporters even remember watching the team play at such an amateur level their results were not even shown on teletext. 

Repeating last season’s incredulous 3rd place finish is going to be unlikely – this is only their 5th ever La Liga season, to put into some perspective how high of a wave they’re currently on. Among the departures are Artem Dovbyk, Savinho, Aleix García, Yan Cuoto, Eric García, and Pablo Torre, all of whom key to Girona’s successes last season. 

But it was manager Míchel who was most instrumental in the historic achievements of 2023/24, and most of these departures were not heralded as superstars when they arrived, meaning that Girona can take some solace in the possibility of creating new heroes out of the players who have arrived, including Bryan Gil, Abel Ruiz, Donny Van De Beek, and Bojan Miovski. 

Some historic Champions League nights and a comfortable mid-table finish would constitute a good season for Girona. 

Barcelona

Barcelona, as ever, will be targeting silverware. They’ll look to make amends for last season’s poor domestic campaign which saw them barely lay a glove on eventual league winners Real Madrid. In Europe, too, they will be hoping for improvement, after being narrowly edged by PSG despite having won the first leg of that tie.

It’s been a summer of change in the Catalan capital, with new manager Hansi Flick taking over from club legend Xavi Hernández. The German coach will look to implement more intensity and a modern pressing game to the Catalan side, but the 0-3 defeat to Monaco in the Gamper Trophy Game will leave lots of question marks about the team at the opening of the campaign. 

Nobody batted an eyelid with Dani Olmo left Barcelona’s youth academy in 2014. Few people knew the name, and fewer still thought that he could grow into one of the brightest players Spain has produced this generation. Ten years later, after passing through the Croatian and German leagues, the Terrassa-born attacking midfielder is back, amid huge fanfare, and great hopes that he can knit Flick’s team together. 

However, there’s also been plenty of noise made about Nico Williams, with fans’ hopes set on signing the Athletic Club winger, who at the moment seems happy to see out another season in the Basque Country. 

The blaugrana are planning on making the return to the Camp Nou with around 60% capacity in December. That will mean crowds of a little more than 60,000 will be able to attend matches. This will help enormously for the club’s bottom line, no longer renting the Olympic Stadium while also getting more supporters in through the door in a larger venue, but until then they will have to make do with Montjuïc. 

It could also be another turbulent year for Barça off the pitch, as their tight financial troubles still loom over everything they do, although they were able to return to the 1:1 rule after a recently announced deal with food company Aramark. 

So what are they targeting this year? As ever with a club the size of Barcelona, trophies are the priority. They will battle for the La Liga title, and if they can make it to the semifinals of the Champions League, that will surely be considered a step forward. 

Espanyol 

Newly returned to the top flight this year are Espanyol, back where they belong after one season in the second division. Their aim this season will be to avoid the drop again and look to build up some stability that has eluded them for years. 

Espanyol are desperately craving some stability. Since 2018, los pericos have only had one campaign where they haven’t either qualified for Europe, been relegated, or been promoted. 

Most of their new arrivals have been loan signings with little experience in La Liga, while they lost last season’s top scorer Martin Braithwaite during the summer, although some media in Spain report that the striker in turn now wants to buy the club, which would be a remarkable turn of events, and surely offer some excitement to the fanbase who have grown disheartened of the current ownership after two recent relegations. 

Goalkeeper Joan García emerged as one of the brightest young talents that has come through in some time and has attracted interest from the Premier League, while a lot of hope will rest on Javi Puado’s shoulders to lead the front line. 

Avoiding relegation will be the only goal for the blanquiazules this year, staying in the top flight and then building on that stability.