La Liga News: Getafe vs. Barcelona – Lionel Messi’s opener helps Barcelona secure the three points (Part 3)
Carles Puyol had an amazing time at the back and simply made great saves and defended the ball extraordinarily. Victor Valdes also had a great night and saved most of the shots that came at him. Gerard Pique was the only “off” defender in the Blaugrana jersey.
Not only did he miss out on a few tackles, he also earned himself a red card and served Getafe with a penalty to capitalize.
Even though the hand ball that was given was not deliberate, he was still sent off as Manu Del Moral made no mistake in planting the ball into the net from the penalty spot. Even though Victor Valdes got his hand to the penalty that was taken by Manu, it
was still too powerful to be stopped and found its way inside the net as Getafe started to capitalize with their 1 goal and started to attack and pressured Barcelona.
With Gerard Pique being sent off, Xavi Hernandez had to be rested and he was taken off as Gabriel Milito came in to join the team at the back. Soon, Sergio Busquets also came on for David Villa and later Seydou Keita took his position in the midfield as
Pedro Rodriguez was taken off.
All these changes were all “tactical” as Guardiola saved his key players and sent in midfielders to help the team defend the two goal lead that they had. The changes served well and even though there were a few more chances for Barcelona that they couldn’t
capitalize on, they still won the game 1-3 to take the well deserving 3 points; however, their second half performance was simply not up to the mark.
On the other hand, Getafe had a few players that were not playing like they usually would on a normal day. The goalkeeper Jodi Codina had a superb night even though he conceded 3 goals.
Codina saved a number of chances that would find the back of the net on any other day but he helped the team from the humiliation that they might have faced in case he wasn’t there. The defender Rafa was simply not playing the way he usually would. He was
the one who fumbled as Lionel Messi closed him down to help the team take a three goal lead.
Pablo Pintoz had a great night, he defended well, moved forward to help the team in making good moves and even Mane did a fine job at the back even though Pedro Rodriguez gave him a very tough time.
The holding midfielder Derek Boateng had the worst night of his entire life. By being booked in the first half, Boateng simply went on to bang on to Javier Mascherano and made a useless off-the-ball challenge to put his team to 10 men against a 10 men Barcelona.
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