Hansi Flick’s troops are showing remarkable resilience and poise, and a bunch of youngsters and previous bench warmers are giving their all to help the team not only stay alive but thrive under the pressure of a crazy calendar and a brutal injury crisis. Barça have no right to look this good this early considering how big the change in philosophy is and how key the missing players are, but this team’s next man up mentality is a joy to watch.
Now they look for a seventh straight win to maintain their healthy gap at the top, but it won’t be easy against a team that knows exactly how to frustrate them to no end. José Bordalás’ Getafe have been Barça’s most annoying rivals for several years now, using all sorts of timewasting tactics and flat-out dirty play to try and distrupt the Blaugrana.
Bordalás relishes stopping Barça from playing their usual pretty patterns, but this is the first time he’ll get to face Hansi Flick and a much more direct style of play from the Catalans that no team in Spain has managed to contain so far. Getafe love to press Barça high and then kick the living hell out of them if they get the ball into the final third, and Lamine Yamal will certainlty be an especially easy target of rough treatment if the referee allows it.
We’ll see how Flick adapts his tactics to deal with what Getafe does best (or worst depending on your perspective), and if Barça can get out to a fast start to force Bordalás and his troops to try and play differently to chase the game instead of just looking to get out of town with a goalless draw, which will no doubt be their number one goal.
Getafe are yet to win and have scored just three goals in six games this season, so their attack is not prepared to create many scoring chances if they are forced to go toe-to-toe with Barça’s unstoppable offense. The Blaugrana need a strong start and a level head to deal with Getafe’s shenanigans, and if they do that there should be not much trouble finding enough goals to win comfortably in front of the home crowd.
BARCELONA
Starting XI: Peña; Kounde, Cubarsí, Iñigo, Balde; Casadó, Eric, Torre; Yamal, Lewandowski, Raphinha (4-3-3)
Substitutes: Astralaga (GK), Yaakobishvili (GK), Domínguez, Cuenca, Fort, Martín, Pedri, Guille, Toni, Ferran, Fati, Víctor
GETAFE
Starting XI: Soria; Iglesias, Djené, Alderete, Berrocal; Pérez, Milla, Santiago, Sola; Aleñá, Uche (4-4-2)
Substitutes: Letacek (GK), Medenica (GK), Argüelles, Rico, Duarte, Risco, Costa, Arambarri, Keita, Yildirim, Mayoral, González