Barcelona vs Getafe, La Liga: Final Score 4-0, Efficient Barça cruise to dominant win at home

Barcelona are back in second place in the La Liga table and just five points behind the leaders for at least the next 24 hours thanks to a commanding 4-0 victory over Getafe at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Blaugrana dominated almost the entire game at home and easily dispatched Getafe, who could not keep up with a Barça side that didn’t fall for their dirty tactics and forced them to actually try and play football for a change.

FIRST HALF

The opening period was just as frustrating to watch as expected: Getafe didn’t want any football to be played and tried their hardest to get in the heads of Barça players with their annoying and dirty tactics to slow down the pace of the game, while the Blaugrana dominated the ball and tried to create chances.

The Catalans found a lot of joy with long balls in behind Getafe’s high line when the away team tried to press, and there were several occasions where Raphinha and João Félix found themselves in excellent positions in the final third. One of them resulted in a goal: a perfect long pass from Jules Kounde released Raphinha on the right wing, and the Brazilian had plenty of time and space to run into the box and pick out the bottom corner to put the home team in front.

Barça had a lot of momentum after a strong start but couldn’t quite maintain it, and Getafe slowly but surely grew into the contest and had a couple of good offensive moments through Mason Greenwood, and Marc-André ter Stegen was called into action once or twice and made solid saves.

The Blaugrana eventually reestablished their dominance and should have been out of sight towards the end of half thanks to two massive chances where Raphinha was released all alone with just the goalkeeper in front of him and Félix alongside him ready for an easy tap-in, but the Brazilian wasted both: the first was a bad effort with his right foot that didn’t hit the target after he chose to ignore his Portuguese teammate, and the second was an attempted assist to Félix that was way too strong and resulted in the end of the half.

At the break Barça had the advantage but should have had way more than just the one goal, and Getafe were still in the game despite not doing much to deserve it.

SECOND HALF

Getafe made an attacking substitution at halftime and changed formations to a 4-3-3 with players higher up the pitch and an attempt to have more possession as they looked for the equalizer. They almost scored less than five minutes into the period with a shot from distance by Luis Milla that was saved by Ter Stegen onto the post, and the visitors seemed on the mood to get back in the game.

But before Getafe could produce another opportunity, Barça found a second goal: after a beautiful passing sequence down the right side to break the press from the visitors Raphinha found the run of Andreas Christensen with a great through ball, and the Dane gave Félix the easiest of tap-ins at the far post to double the Blaugrana lead.

Robert Lewandowski almost tripled the lead shortly after with a nice finish inside the box after an assist by Raphinha, but the goal was correctly disallowed for a narrow offside on the Polish striker.

As we reached the hour mark Barça were in full control of the game, and the Catalans added a third to make sure of the victory: a pass from Gündogan found Raphinha just onside, and the Brazilian rounded the keeper before giving Frenkie de Jong an easy chance at the edge of the box that the Dutchman calmly finished to kill off the game.

Barça had a bit of a lull after the third goal and allowed Getafe to have some of the possession, and the visitors had a couple of dangerous moments with crosses into the box but their strikers couldn’t get shots on target to truly trouble Ter Stegen.

The home team recovered from that dull spell and regained full control of the game, and there was still time to add a fourth goal as a through ball from De Jong found Vitor Roque one-on-one with the keeper, and after the young striker’s shot was saved the rebound came to Fermín López who simply couldn’t miss.

The final whistle came to end a great afternoon for Barça, who dominated from start to finish and didn’t allow Getafe to get in their heads. The victory was deserved, the performance by the whole team was strong, and Getafe’s dirty tactics didn’t work this time. What a shame.

Well done, boys!

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Kounde, Cubarsí, Araujo, Cancelo (Cancelo 83’); Christensen (Romeu 77’), De Jong; Raphinha (Roque 77’), Gündogan (Pedri 83’), Félix (Fermín 63’); Lewandowski

Goals: Raphinha (20’), Félix (53’), De Jong (61’), Fermín (90+1’)

Getafe: Soria; Iglesias (Carmona 46’), Álvarez, Alderete, Djené (Aleñá 67’); Maksimovic (Mata 67’), Milla, Moriba (Santiago 77’), Rico; Greenwood (Rodríguez 67’), Mayoral

Goals: None