Real Madrid beat Getafe 1-0 on Saturday in La Liga play, which served as a good warmup for the pivotal matchup against Manchester City that they will play in the Champions League semi-finals.
Due to the narrow margin of victory achieved by the champions, the leaders Barcelona are now required to defeat their city rivals Espanyol at Cornella on Sunday in order to be able to claim the championship this coming weekend.
In a match with limited scoring opportunities, the score was finally broken in the 70th minute by a deflected shot from a distance made by Marco Asensio. As a result of Madrid’s win, they moved up to provisional second place, passing Atletico Madrid although remaining 11 points behind Barcelona.
Following the 1-1 draw that took place in Madrid on Tuesday, Carlo Ancelotti used a significant amount of rotation in order to keep his key players fresh in preparation for the second leg struggle against Pep Guardiola’s City.
Only three of the players that began the first game were in Ancelotti’s starting lineup for the second match: the goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Eduardo Camavinga, and Fede Valverde. Camavinga was forced to leave the match on his knees in the late moments after suffering knee discomfort in a collision with Juan Iglesias.
Ancelotti anticipated that the French midfielder would make a speedy recovery from his injury.”He twisted his knee a bit, it’s a blow, nothing more, he will recover very quickly,” Ancelotti said to the press after the match.
“Tomorrow he will rest like the others who played today, and I think from Monday on he will train with the team, as he doesn’t have a problem,” said the coach. “He doesn’t have any issues.” Ancelotti continued by saying, “The knee is stable, it hurts him a bit now, but the important thing is stability, and he has that, 100 per cent.”
The team’s presentation of the Copa del Rey trophy that they won the previous weekend in Seville brought the greatest enthusiasm to the supporters of Real Madrid throughout the first half of the match at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Beyond that, there was very little movement at either end of the field throughout the opening quarter. Belgian attacker Eden Hazard looked unimpressive in his first league start since September, which was not surprise.
The 32-year-old winger showed no signs of life at Real Madrid, where he has been a forgotten man ever since his aborted transfer to Madrid from Chelsea in 2019.
Ancelotti, frustrated by his team’s lackluster performance, substituted Toni Kroos for Ferland Mendy at halftime and moved Camavinga to left back. He also switched Camavinga to the left back position. Vinicius Junior and Luka Modric were in close pursuit shortly after.
Courtois made a spectacular stop to deny Iglesias a goal from a long range as Getafe fought for points that were essential to their hopes of surviving.
Nevertheless, Asensio gave Madrid the lead with twenty minutes left to play when his effort from twenty yards away rebounded off Nemanja Maksimovic and went by David Soria, who was unable to stop it.
Asensio said in an interview with DAZN, “I’m trying to make the most out of the opportunities the coach gives me.”
We were aware that it would be a challenging matchup because our opponent plays a good defensive game.
Asensio came close to doubling his tally with a header off of a wonderful cross by Kroos, but Soria made an outstanding stop to save him from doing so.
Getafe, led by Jose Bordalas, is now in 18th place, which places them in the relegation zone. They are tied on points with Valencia, who are in 17th place and will play Celta Vigo on Sunday. Earlier in the day, Villarreal defeated Athletic Bilbao with ease, 5-1, to narrow the distance between themselves and Real Sociedad, who are now in fourth position.
Earlier in the match, Girona played La Real to a tie score of 2-2, which provided Villarreal with a glimmer of hope that they may overtake La Real and qualify for the Champions League ahead of the Basque club.
Yellow Submarine, coached by Quique Setien, made the most of their opportunity and defeated Athletic, the eighth-place team, thanks in large part to the efforts of Senegalese attacker Nicolas Jackson.
The in-form 21-year-old forward scored twice to bring his total for the previous four games he’s played to six goals scored. Alex Baena also scored twice, and Athletic’s woes were compounded when Aitor Paredes scored by putting the ball in his own net.
Real Sociedad, coached by Imanol Alguacil, grabbed a comfortable two-goal lead against Girona thanks to a penalty kick scored by Mikel Oyarzabal and an experienced player named David Silva.
Yan Couto and Cristhian Stuani scored for the Catalan visitors before halftime to bring the score even. Despite this, the hosts were able to hold on to their lead.
“The way the team’s played in the final phase of the season is keeping me calm,” said Alguacil. “I’m not going to panic.”
“There are no easy games,” the coach said, “but with the team playing how it is, we have to be optimistic.”
Real Sociedad will go to La Liga leaders Barcelona the next weekend, and they also have a match scheduled away at Atletico Madrid in their final four matches.