FC Barcelona News

The result was Barça’s second goalless draw of the campaign

• The 0-0 draw at the Coliseum was Barça’s second goalless draw of the season following the game in Malaga in week 5

• The team wore the same orange strip in Malaga as they did on Saturday and, in fact, in the four games the kit has been worn Barça have kept clean sheets.

• Barça have not conceded in 14 of the 22 games played so far this season.

• The draw put an end to a run of eight winning games

• Leo Messi has now struck the woodwork eight times in the league this season

• Xavi (110), Piqué (107) and Busquets (102) made most interventions in the games

• Javier Mascherano, who missed the game, remains one game short of his two hundredth Club appearance

• Dani Alves did play though  – and made his two hundredth appearance

A recap of the 0-0 draw between the two teams at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez

The Getafe v Barça league encounter at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez ended without score. Barça had several chances to break the deadlock, especially Leo Messi’s free-kick onto the crossbar, but the rock solid Getafe defending managed to earn a point. This video has all the highlights

The FC Barcelona captain was frustrated that the team came close so often, especially with Messi’s free kick, without scoring

He adds that “the most important is to win, more than the system, and we weren’t able to do that today”

Barça only got a point from the trip to the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez to play Getafe, and for Xavi Hernández that’s “a step backwards. We tried it all in the kind of game we’re used to facing, but if you can’t break the deadlock things get difficult”.

“We had three or four really good chances, especially the Messi free-kick onto the bar, but the ball didn’t want to go in.” The eight-match winning streak has come to an end, and now “we have to get back to the good way things were going until now.” Asked about Saturday’s tactics, the FCB captain insisted that “the most important thing is to win, more than the system, and we weren’t able to do that today.”

Going away unhappy

Sergio Busquets also spoke to the press after the game, saying that “we tried different ways of creating danger, we gave it all we could, and we’re going away unhappy.” And although it’s by no means an excuse, he conceded that “perhaps we were still tired after Wednesday.”

The game leaves Barça four points behind leaders Real Madrid. “Of course we’d rather be top, but there’s a lot of league still to play” he said. “We have to take things game by game and start cutting away at the difference bit by bit.”

Examining mistakes

Along similar lines, Ivan Rakitic insisted in the mixed zone that “there’s still a long way to go. We have to focus on ourselves and continue doing things the right way we have until now. This result does nothing to change our ideas.”

Not that there aren’t lessons to be learned. “We aren’t happy with the result” he stressed. “We will be self-critical and will study our mistakes. But we didn’t play badly, we tried everything out there.”

As for being substituted, the Croat explained that “all players want to play all the time, but it’s the manager who has to make these decisions. All we can do is make it hard for him to make those decisions.”

Despite the draw at Getafe, he insists that he is not unhappy with his players

After the goalless draw in Getafe, Barça manager Luis Enrique Martínez preferred to focus on the positives “We were better than the opposition” he said. “We had a lot of chances. If any of them had materialised we’d be talking about a good game. We attacked their goal an infinite number of times in the second half and created plenty of chances to score.”

He therefore insisted that “I am not unhappy with my players. They fought from the very start. We knew it would be difficult. I don’t think we gave away a single minute. We tried to play the best game we possibly could”.

But the result leaves Barça four points adrift of leaders Real Madrid. “There’s a long way to go yet” said the Asturian. “We had a four-point lead before and now it’s the other way round. We have to accept things and try to improve.”

The Catalans dominated from start to finish, but the goals just didn’t want to come

Barça were by far the better side, but Getafe limited themselves to neutralising that superiority and got away with a point

On a chilly afternoon in Madrid, with the rain pounding down on the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, Barça dropped two crucial points against Getafe despite dominating the possession and creating almost all the chances.

Bravo to the rescue

With Neymar absent through injury and his place in the Barça frontline occupied by Pedro, the game got off to a quiet start, with neither side doing anything of note for the first quarter of an hour. Barça gradually started turning their domination of the ball into chances, with a lively Luis Suárez involved in almost all of them, either by supplying assists or shooting at goal but to no avail. In fact, it was Getafe’s Lafita who probably came closest to scoring in the first 45 minutes, following up a great solo run with a fine strike that forced the very best out of an inspired Claudio Bravo.

The main talking points of the half were claims for handball in both areas, Valera at one end and Alves at the other within the space of a minute, but the referee wasn’t interested in either.

Unrewarded dominance

The second half saw Barça continue to pile on the pressure. Messi produced two fine free kicks, but one hit the woodwork and the other was saved by Guaita. However, considering that almost all the football was played inside the Getafe half, the chances were relatively few and far between. Suarez sent an attempt over the bar, Xavi had a pop from outside the area, Jordi Alba picked out Messi for a header that also went over, Velázquez got his foot first to what would otherwise have been a golden opportunity to finally break the deadlock – this just wasn’t turning out to be Barça’s day, with Getafe’s ultra-defensive approach not doing anything to help open the game up.

One last push

Munir and Iniesta came on for Rakitic and Pedro, but it still proved extraordinarily difficult to find any way through the extremely tight defence deployed by Getafe manager Cosmin Contra. Despite pushing all the way for the last quarter of an hour, the nearest Barça came to scoring was when Iniesta struck from outside the area. Naldo was perfectly positioned to clear the ball from danger and frustrating afternoon’s work for Barça clawed to an end. They had proved themselves to be by far the better side, but Getafe can only be commended for neutralising that superiority and escaping with a point. This a game that Luis Enrique will be ruing as a valuable opportunity lost.