Barcelona may have had some question marks over their team due to fatigue after the Spain friendly against Uruguay, but with only Xavi missing from action, the Blaugrana ended up cruising to an easy win past an impotent Getafe.
Barcelona vs. Getafe: Final Score 6-1, Barca crush hopeless Azulones
Barcelona cruised to an easy 6-1 victory against a Getafe side that offered nothing all game.
David Ramos
Their opponents were sufering from an injury crisis themselves, and it took Barcelona just six minutes to find a way through with a typical goal - Andres Iniesta played a magnificent through ball to take the defence out of the equation and find Alexis Sanchez cutting inside, who finished coolly past Getafe's backup keeper Jordi Codina.
Getafe's decision to start with two strikers had left them struggling in midfield, and Barcelona were playing their best passing football unhindered. It was no surprise when they registered their second goal shortly afterwards, Iniesta again involved as he chipped a fine ball for Thiago Alcantara, whose pass found Lionel Messi on the edge of the area to drill in low and into the corner of the net.
The last time Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick as he did last night, Messi went and scored four goals. There was no such haul from him today, but he almost scored one of the goals of his career with an overhead kick from David Villa's cross, but could not quite make contact properly. Shortly afterwards, he also hit the post after getting on the end of Alexis' ball over the top.
It may have been seen as admirable by some to play 4-4-2 away from home against Barcelona and press intently, but it was doing Getafe no favours - they could have been six or seven down by half-time but for some uncharacteristically poor finishing. Iniesta was left utterly free in midfield and created chance after chance, finding Jordi Alba's run to cross for David Villa, but the striker fluffed his lines. More Messi magic left the Argentina and Villa again going close, but the Azulones somehow made it to the break only 2-0 down.
After the second half began, that scoreline didn’t last long, Barca scoring their simplest goal of the day, Alba teeing up Villa with a calm pass before the striker took one touch and finished expertly. That appeared to take the sting out of the game, with the pace dropping remarkably, although Barcelona should have had a penalty when Codina fouled Alexis when coming for a cross.
Alexis was then replaced by Cristian Tello, and it wasn’t long before he found himself on the scoresheet. A brilliant Messi run drew the defence away before he attempted a one-two, but Tello took the shot on himself and was proved right to do so, making it 4-0 to the hosts.
The visitors then managed to grab an unlikely consolation goal, thanks to Alvaro Vazquez, getting on the end of a shoddy defensive header from Jordi Alba to stab home a goal that would make the scoreline a bit more respectable. Or so they thought. Barcelona appeared to be content to keep the ball until the whistle, but as injury time dawned, they had two more goals in them.
First a Messi run was halted by a tackle from Sergio Escudero, only for the ball to rebound into the path of Iniesta, who made no mistake from inside the area. A deserved goal for the best player on the pitch. And with the last kick of the game, Dani Alves found Thiago with a cross which was moved on to the onrushing Gerard Pique, who produced the simplest of finishes to complete the rout.
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