Barça put the direct line on the freeway that it found towards David Soria. At the gallop, Montjuïc finally had a placid match after so many recent struggles. The penitents who go up to the Olympic were grateful to see their team with a three-goal advantage, with half an hour ahead after reading perfectly that it was an afternoon for the sprinters. They woke up and put on the boots of Raphinha and João Félix with the poisonous diagonals. Accustomed to tight ends, in the stands they were even able to celebrate goals from De Jong and Fermín, who are not lavish. For one day, there was a feast.
Getafe pressed and Barcelona ran into space. Those from Bordalás were brave and the speed of Xavi’s made them pay dearly for their approach with a lot of instinct and smell to do damage. The Blaugrana wingers Raphinha and João Félix did not stop taking the back of the blue defense, they created the confusion of the visitors, came into the advantage from the back and scored the first two goals almost at pleasure, with all the time of the world to define. Curiously, playing at full capacity calmed down.
They are 13 points out of 15 possible in the League since Xavi Hernández announced his departure on June 30. The truth is that the team has had an affordable schedule, but it is already known that nobody gives anything away, least of all the awkward Getafe, to whom the plan, daring, made a fool of himself. Barcelona is fully involved in the fight for second place and putting pressure on the leader, Madrid, with a third of the championship to play for.
Xavi Hernández usually says that he understands football as time and space, that Barça must look for superiority to end up creating holes in rival defenses. However, the Blaugrana team found a large area to exploit and took advantage of it with a game full of clearances and depth. Barcelona fans understood that it was a day to run like athletes at the 1992 Games.
Only three days after the trip to Naples, it was a day to have fresh legs and the coach booked Lamine Yamal and Pedri, two of those who suffered the most from the intensity in the Champions League. In their places, Raphinha entered on the right and João Félix on the left. The decision proved to be the right one as there was no time to waste and both wings came in motivated after their January injuries. The Brazilian and the Portuguese have not matched in the eleven since Barbastre, on January 7.
Running, Barça had fun. Getafe did not want to hear about losing the ball in their own field. It is the Primera team that plays the longest. At the very least, he sends the ball away from his area in order to activate the intense and sticky pressure. And Bordalás did not change his approach so that he had Barcelona in front.
Soon the locals, even Ter Stegen, detected that it was necessary to look for the opponent’s back. It was helped by Xavi’s decision to place Cubarsí on the right profile of the centrals to have a better outlet and the fact that De Jong and Gündogan also chose to play quickly in depth. Because if you wait a long time, Getafe is capable of fouling two players in the same play, if necessary.
It wasn’t any of them, but Koundé, who saw Raphinha’s great clearance at 1-0. The Brazilian traced the diagonal and with three touches reached the front of the area and placed the shot stuck to the base of the post with his left.
Raphinha put on his boots in part also because Getafe was disastrous when it came to throwing offside. Gündogan and Lewandowski narrowly missed two crosses from the wing by the Brazilian, who was then wrong in a one-on-one that sent high with the right and a poor delivery to João Félix when both they faced David Soria in superiority.
The two, Raphinha and João Félix, got rid of the bad mouth after the break. The Portuguese, when he finished off an assist from Christensen in the net, which appeared as if it was from an end to cut through the middle of the Madrid defense, wide open. The Brazilian recovered with another vertical move at the back in which he ended up giving way behind for De Jong to make the third with half an hour to go.
Even with 3-0, Getafe, who have never won in Barça’s field, betrayed their initial idea, but continued to see how the chances in their goal happened one after the other with continuous clearances. Vitor Roque, who after not making his debut in the Champions League came on for Raphinha, stood in front of Soria but could not beat the goalkeeper. The rejection, indeed, was materialized by Fermín. Barcelona also knows how to win by thrashing, not just by the minimum.
