Real Madrid defensive winger Dani Carvajal knew Getafe were no pushovers and his team’s hard-fought 1-0 home win confirmed it. Madrid ground out a result in a rough and highly contested La Liga match which helped them extend their table leading position to four points over second-place Barcelona.
Though the hosts enjoyed a 68%-32% possession advantage, they only outshot Getafe 10-8 and were on target four times to their opponent’s three. it was not until the 79th minute when Mathias Olivera clearly upended Carvajal in the box that Real captain, Sergio Ramos, had the opportunity to seal the win with his twenty-first consecutive penalty conversion.
Getafe were rough from the get-go and their first yellow card was earned within seconds of the opening whistle, a shared ten yellows later, it was miraculous no red cards for double yellows ensued. To add to the match’s starkness, Real were not at their best with Casemiro, Toni Kroos, and even Ramos, disappearing for stretches. It was Thibault Courtois, Carvajal, and Varane who kept the hosts in the game the first half and the former two who were joined by Ramos to keep Getafe at bay for the remainder of the match.
In a match that saw Real employ their umpteenth lineup, it was Luka Modric who came closest to scoring as Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior missed their routine handful of goals and plays that could have been scoring opportunities, and coach Zinedine Zidane again misread the match with late substitutions made, again, for his team’s few standout performers (Modric at the 63rd and Isco at the 64th).
With Raphael Varane injured and substituted at the 33rd minute, it was left to sparkplug Carvajal to find a way to not only take on additional defensive duties while delivering good crosses on the other side of the pitch but to also venture into the box to get clobbered in order to pick up his team’s crucial scoring opportunity.
On Tuesday, host Mallorca defeated Celta Vigo 5-1, Sevilla won away 3-0 to Leganes, and Barcelona were held to a 2-2 draw by visiting Atletico Madrid.
On Wednesday, Alaves lost 0-2 at home to Granada, while Valencia did the same to Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal copied both, also winning 2-0 away at Real Betis. Real Valladolid and Levante drew 0-0 for the only different scoreline of the day.
On Thursday, Eibar lost 0-2 to visiting Osasuna and Real Sociedad held on for 2-1 home win over Espanyol.
With 33 matches played, Real Madrid tops the table with 74 points to Barcelona’s 70, followed by third-place Atletico Madrid at 59 points and Sevilla in fourth place with 57 points.
At rounds end, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi lead all scorers with 22 goals followed by Real Madrid’s Benzema at 17, and Barca’s Luis Suarez, Celta Vigo’s Iago Aspas and Athletic Bilbao’s Raul Garcia at 13 apiece.
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