We’re not in November yet and Real Madrid’s defence of their La Liga trophy looks over.

After Barcelona 2-0 victory at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, Real knew they couldn’t afford any slip-ups when the travelled to Girona on Sunday.

They shouldn’t have been complacent, either.

After all, the newly-promoted side gave Barca a run for their money earlier in the season before eventually being beaten 3-0.

During that match, they assigned Pablo Maffeo to man-mark Lionel Messi. While the tactic didn’t get them the desired result, it prevented the Argentine superstar from scoring during the 90 minutes - something that has happened very rarely this season.

Why they didn't man-mark Ronaldo

But before the game, Girona boss Pablo Machin explained why he won’t be adopting the same approach for Cristiano Ronaldo.

"They are two very good players at two great teams, but from my point of view Barcelona have a greater dependence on Messi than Real Madrid do on Ronaldo," the manager said.

"So we'll have to focus on stopping all of them."

And it turns out that Machin didn’t need to worry too much about Ronaldo.

After recently picking up FIFA’s ‘The Best’ award, Ronaldo failed to show everyone why he beat everyone to the accolade by producing a rather underwhelming display.

And Ronaldo’s performance contributed to Madrid falling to a shock 2-1 defeat to leave them eight points behind Barcelona.

And the Portuguese’s reaction after Girona went 2-1 up summed up exactly how everyone associated with Madrid felt at that moment.

And the camera also caught Ronaldo at the final whistle.

As he was walking off the pitch, he was seen deep in conversation with midfielder Alex Granell.

Watch: Ronaldo talks to Granell at full-time

Take a look:

What Ronaldo said to Granell

But what was being said?

Well, the Girona player has revealed that he asked Ronaldo for his shirt - but he refused.

"He said to me that he didn't want to because he hadn't like how we had managed the final minutes of the game," the Girona player said.

"He told me I seemed like a good player, but that he wouldn't change shirts with me."

Interesting.

So Ronaldo only swaps shirt with an opponent if he thinks he’s played well?