Carried once again by its scorer Robert Lewandowski, FC Barcelona continued its perfect start to the season on Wednesday by securing a seventh victory in seven La Liga days against Getafe (1-0).
Author of his seventh goal in as many matches, the Polish striker scored the only goal of the match in the 19th minute, taking advantage of a hand error from the opposing goalkeeper David Soria on a good cross from Jules Koundé (1-0 ), allowing the Blaugrana club (1st, 21 points) to regain a four-point lead over its great rival Real Madrid (2nd, 17 points), winner of Alavès on Tuesday (3-2).
Getafe, still without a victory this season, remains 19th with only four points.
Barça, who remained in three exhibitions in the championship (7-0, 4-1, 5-1), this time delivered a less flamboyant performance but knew how to manage their advantage, despite a starting eleven still far from ideal without Frenkie De Jong, Gavi, Dani Olmo or Ronald Araujo, all in the recovery phase.
The three strong men at the start of the season, Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, all had opportunities to double the lead but came up against Soria (32nd, 59th, 71st) or came close to the crossbar (71st).
“It can happen sometimes… You can’t always win with a big goal difference. The important thing is that we still created chances and that we took three more points, because Getafe is always a difficult team to maneuver around,” said Jules Koundé to Movistar+.
“We had a good match, we controlled the game and we had opportunities to score more, even if we weren’t able to capitalize on them today,” added the French international defender.
For his first start since Marc-André Ter Stegen’s serious knee injury, his replacement Iñaki Peña was not worried, while the Catalan press announced at the end of the afternoon an agreement with the Pole Wojciech Szczesny.
The former Juventus goalkeeper would be inclined to come out of his retirement announced this summer at the age of 34 to compensate for the German’s injury until the end of the season.
Girona still not moving forward
Earlier in the evening, Girona, surprising third last year, went a fourth match without a win in all competitions by conceding a draw (0-0) on their lawn against Rayo Vallecano.
The small Catalan club (12th, 8 points) remains stuck in the second part of the table, far from European places, while Rayo retains its tenth place after this second draw in a row in the league.
This seventh day of La Liga continues on Thursday with the trip of Antoine Griezmann’s Atlético Madrid to Vigo (9:00 p.m.), and the meetings between Las Palmas and Betis Sevilla and between Espanyol Barcelona and Villarreal (7:00 p.m.).
