Liga, Barcelona ahead slowly: equal with Getafe and third match without a goal

From our correspondent Filippo Maria Ricci

April 16th
– Madrid

For Getafe a golden point in their successful fight for salvation so far, for Barcelona a useful point in their race for the title. The 0-0 draw at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez, the second in a row for the Catalans, leaves Xavi’s team +11 on Madrid with 9 games to go. The advantage is large and will be enough, even if Barcelona are clearly in offensive oxygen debt: with this one we are three consecutive games without scoring a single goal, after a 0-4 draw with Madrid and a 0-0 draw with Girona. Symbol of the delicate moment in attack is Robert Lewandowski: the Pole in the last 9 outings between Barça and Poland has scored goals (2) only against Elche, very last in Liga. Today he practically didn’t touch the ball. The prolonged absences of Pedri and Dembélé weigh heavily on the involution of the Blaugrana maneuver.

STRANGE CHOICES

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Xavi is always without Christensen and De Jong and has chosen to use Balde and Jordi Alba together, with the former in front of the latter, in an advanced position. Sergi Roberto right back, Kessie starting in front of Busquets in an unprecedented 4-1-4-1. After just over a quarter of an hour Sergi Roberto got hurt and was replaced by Eric Garcia. The result was an unrecognizable and decidedly confused Barça who only had one blaze in the entire first half, a flash caused by Ter Stegen and certainly not by a maneuver worthy of note. In the 25th minute, after Getafe squandered their second header with Enes Unal from a corner from the left (the first mistake was made by the former Blaugrana Munir served by Borja Mayoral) an eternal throw pierced Getafe’s defense with Raphinha he beat David Soria only to see his shot go off the post. Crooked diagonal rebound that reaches Balde: the goal is empty but the defender today advanced shoots very badly and sends the ball to hit the post again, for the relief of the Coliseum Alfonso Perez. The fans crowded on the very tall trees surrounding the stadium seriously risked falling in fright.

DOWN FROM THE TREES

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These are the four things noted in the first half played honestly and diligently by Getafe and subdued by Barcelona. The recovery continued on the same level, few emotions, many yawns, and the fans made to descend from the trees. Djene only sent Enes Unal in front of Ter Stegen, but the Turk sent the diagonal wide and was suspected offside. In the 23rd minute Xavi tried with Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres for Kessie and Jordi Alba keeping the same pattern with Ferran in a very unusual position for him, from 10. The only decent thing about Barça: a shot from Raphinha with a volley from David Soria. And in the 87th minute a rare mistake by Araujo offered Borja Mayoral a three-point ball that the former Roma player unfortunately sent out due to local desperation.