‘Yes, I stepped on him’ – Claudio Echeverri speaks out on Girona’s controversial winner against Barcelona

Girona midfielder Claudio Echeverri has admitted he trod on Jules Koundé’s foot in the build-up to Fran Beltran’s 88th-minute strike that settled Monday’s stormy Catalan derby, but insists the contact was accidental.

Television replays showed Echeverri’s boot making clear contact with Koundé as both players chased a loose ball inside the Barça half. Referee Jesús Gil Manzano allowed play to continue and, seconds later, Beltran curled past Iñaki Peña to seal a 2-1 victory that lifts Girona level on points with the league leaders and leaves Barcelona in second, one point adrift.

Speaking to El Chiringuito after reviewing the footage, the 22-year-old Argentine said: “Yes, I stepped on Koundé’s foot, but I was running at speed and didn’t do it on purpose. If the referee had given it as a foul, I would have understood.”

His confession is unlikely to placate a Barcelona camp still incensed that VAR did not intervene. Coach Hansi Flick, whose side led at the interval through Robert Lewandowski’s 38th-minute header, labelled the decision “surprising” and revealed he had granted his squad two days off before reconvening ahead of Sunday’s visit to Rayo Vallecano.

“Everyone is disappointed. We will fight,” Flick said. “We have time to come back now in the next two weeks with no midweek games. We will train good and come back for Sunday. Now we have to fight and attack the first place in the table.”

The German tactician accepted his team “were too open” in the closing stages at Montilivi and lamented a second-half display in which Girona dominated territory and possession. “We played a bad game,” he conceded, noting that Barcelona ought to have sealed the points before the interval.

The defeat ends Barcelona’s four-match league winning streak and hands the initiative to their rivals in a title race that promises to go down to the wire.