An additional 1000 seats inside the Estadi Montilivi to accommodate the extra attraction surrounding Sunday night's visitors could not help Girona replicate their feats of 12 months ago as they went down 4-1 at home to Real Madrid.
Revisiting the scene of a 2-1 defeat last season, it looked as though Los Blancos' Catalonian nightmare was set to continue as former Castilla man Garcia Borja rifled his attempt home with just a quarter of an hour played to put the strong pro-independence region ahead.
However, four unanswered strikes - the first two coming via Marco Asensio-won penalties - from Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale and a Karim Benzema brace were easily enough in the end to overcome the impressive Girona.