Effective if not flamboyant, FC Barcelona dominated Getafe this Wednesday (1-0) and regained a four-point lead over Real Madrid at the top of La Liga.
Led once again 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).
Author of his 7th goal in as many games, the Polish striker scored the only goal of the match in the 19th minute by taking advantage of a handling error by the opposing goalkeeper David Soria on a good cross from Jules Koundé (1-0), allowing the Blaugrana club (1st, 21 points) to regain a four-point lead over Real Madrid (2nd, 17 points), winner on Tuesday against Alavès (3-2). Getafe, still without a win this season, remains 19th with only four small points.
FC Barcelona, who had just won three times in the league (7-0, 4-1, 5-1), this time delivered a less flamboyant performance but managed to manage their advantage, despite a starting eleven that was still far from ideal without Frenkie De Jong, Gavi, Dani Olmo or Ronald Araujo, all in the recovery phase. The three strong men from the start of the season, Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, all had opportunities to double their lead but came up against Soria (32nd, 59th, 71st) or grazed the bar (71st).
Iñaki Peña not worried
“It can happen sometimes… You can’t always win with a big goal difference. The important thing is that we still created chances and took three more points, because Getafe are always a difficult team to play against,” Jules Koundé told Movistar+. “We played a good game, we controlled the game and we had chances to score more, even if we weren’t able to convert them today,” added the French international defender.
For his first start since Marc-André ter Stegen’s serious knee injury, his replacement Iñaki Peña was not worried, while the Catalan press announced at the end of the afternoon an agreement with the Pole Wojciech Szczesny. The former Juventus goalkeeper would be inclined to come out of his retirement announced this summer at 34 years old to compensate for the German’s injury until the end of the season.
Earlier in the evening, Girona, a surprise third-place finisher last year, went on a fourth game without a win in all competitions, drawing 0-0 at home to Rayo Vallecano. The small Catalan club (12th, 8 points) remains stuck in the second half of the table, far from the European places, while Rayo retains its tenth place after this second consecutive draw in the league.
This seventh day of La Liga continues on Thursday with the trip of Antoine Griezmann’s Atlético to Vigo (9 p.m.), and the matches between Las Palmas and Betis Sevilla and between Espanyol Barcelona and Villarreal (7 p.m.).
