Effective despite not being flamboyant, FC Barcelona dominated Getafe this Wednesday (1-0) and regained a four-point lead over Real Madrid at the top of La Liga.
Once again driven by Robert Lewandowski, Barça continued their perfect start to the season on Wednesday by securing a seventh victory in seven La Liga matches against Getafe (1-0).
Scoring his 7th goal in as many matches, the Polish forward netted the only goal of the game in the 19th minute, capitalizing on a handling error from the opposing goalkeeper David Soria from a good cross by Jules Koundé (1-0), allowing the blaugrana club (1st, 21 points) to pull four points ahead of Real Madrid (2nd, 17 points), who won against Alavés (3-2) on Tuesday. Getafe, still without a win this season, remains 19th with only four small points.
FC Barcelona, which had been on a three-match demonstration in the league (7-0, 4-1, 5-1), delivered a less flamboyant performance this time but managed to control their advantage, despite a starting eleven that is still far from ideal without Frenkie De Jong, Gavi, Dani Olmo, or Ronald Araujo, all in recovery phase. The three key players of the season’s start, Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, and Raphinha, all had opportunities to double the lead but were thwarted by Soria (32, 59, 71) or grazed the crossbar (71).
Iñaki Peña not troubled
“It can happen sometimes… We can’t always win with a big goal difference. The important thing is that we still created opportunities and gained three more points, because Getafe is always a difficult team to manoeuvre,” said Jules Koundé to Movistar+. “We played a good match, controlled the game, and had chances to score more, even if we weren’t able to convert them today,” added the French international defender.
In his first start since the serious knee injury of Marc-André ter Stegen, his replacement Iñaki Peña was not troubled, while the Catalan press was announcing late in the afternoon an agreement with Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. The former Juventus keeper would be inclined to come out of his announced retirement this summer at 34 years old to cover for the German’s injury until the end of the season.
Earlier in the evening, Girona, the surprising third place from last year, extended their winless run to four matches in all competitions by drawing (0-0) at home against Rayo Vallecano. The small Catalan club (12th, 8 points) remains stuck in the lower half of the table, far from European spots, while Rayo retains their tenth place after this second consecutive draw in the league.
This seventh round of La Liga continues on Thursday with Atlético de Antoine Griezmann traveling to Vigo (21:00), and the matches between Las Palmas and Real Betis and Espanyol Barcelona facing Villarreal (19:00).