Valentin Castellanos was on fire and took hot to handle as Real Madrid fell to a 4-2 loss to Girona in La Liga on Tuesday to seemingly hand the La Liga title to rivals Barcelona.

The striker, who is on loan from Major League Soccer side New York City turned heads with a header after just twelve minutes to give the home side the lead. He scored twelve minutes later to double Girona’s lead before Vinicius Junior pulled one back in the 34th minute.

Castellanos completed his hattrick immediately after the break and secured the win for Girona with a fourth goal two minutes after the hour mark.

Real Madrid made it 4-2 later in the game through Vazquez in the 85th minute, but Castellanos had already broken a 75-year record. Castellanos is the first player since Esteban Echaverria netted five for Real Oviedo against Madrid In December 1947 to score four or more against the Los Blancos in La Liga.

The results mean Real Madrid may go 14 points behind Barcelona if the league leaders win their game on Wednesday. Real Madrid is 11 points behind Barcelona, having played a game more.

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Castellanos has now scored 11 La Liga goals for Girona this season and only had six shots all game long on Tuesday, with which he scored four.

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti apologized to fans after saying the majority of his players were below par.

“It’s never good to lose, but maybe this loss can be a wake-up call. It was a tough night. Defensively, we were bad, and that’s the key to the game. With the ball, we did quite well, but we weren’t convincing in our defensive duels to stop their counterattacks. That’s the simple explanation. Of our last seven games, we had six clean sheets. Today, we conceded four because we didn’t have a defensive commitment. We weren’t a team today. And, individually, almost everyone except a few exceptions were below their usual level today. We apologize to the fans.” he said.

Daniel Ademiju Idowu