Getafe vs Barcelona

La Liga pacesetters Barcelona head to the Coliseum Alfonso Perez to take on perennial relegation candidates Getafe.

Getafe’s decent-looking four-game unbeaten streak in La Liga (W2, D2) came to a halt at the hands of Real Sociedad last time out (0-2), leaving them only three points clear of the drop zone. However, Quique Sanchez Flores’s men could flip the script after winning their last three home league games, including two ‘to nil.’ If only they face someone other than Barcelona. ‘El Geta’ lament an embarrassing 8.6% win ratio across 35 top-flight encounters against runaway leaders (W3, D7, L25), but they’ve held their more esteemed visitors at bay in their last two meetings at home (W1, D1). Connoisseurs of action-packed football may not look forward to this fixture, considering each of the three most recent La Liga clashes between Getafe and Barcelona in Madrid has yielded under 2.5 goals.

Meanwhile, Barcelona were slow to recover from a humiliating 4-0 home defeat to Real Madrid in last week’s Copa del Rey semi-finals, sharing the spoils with sub-par Girona in a dull 0-0 home draw in the previous La Liga round. Following Madrid’s 2-0 triumph at Cadiz yesterday, the pressure will be on Xavi Hernandez’s side to get back to winning ways and re-establish a 13-point cushion at the summit. The ‘Blaugrana’ have delivered a couple of convincing away showings since a 1-0 defeat at Almeria in late February, dispatching Athletic Bilbao and Elche by an aggregate score of 5-0 on their last two league travels. Another win ‘to nil’ looks inevitable, especially considering the visitors have clocked a jaw-dropping 21 clean sheets in 28 league outings in 2022/23.