Getafe vs Barcelona, La Liga: Team News, Match Preview, How to Watch, Lineups, Score Prediction
Getafe CF (0pts) vs FC Barcelona (CHAMPIONS, 0pts)
Competition/Round: 2023-24 La Liga, Matchday 1
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Iñigo Martínez, Clément Lenglet, Sergiño Dest (out), Iñaki Peña, Marcos Alonso (doubt)
Getafe Outs & Doubts: Enes Ünal, Mauro Arambarri (out), Luis Milla (doubt)
Date/Time: Sunday, August 13, 2023, 9.30pm CET (Barcelona), 8.30pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3.30pm ET, 12.30pm PT (USA), 1am IST (India, Monday)
Venue: Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, Madrid, Spain
Referee: César Soto Grado
VAR: Javier Iglesias Villanueva
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), TSN3 (Canada), SuperSport (Nigeria), Sports18 (India), ITV 4, Viaplay Sports 1 (UK), Not Available (Spain), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), ITVX, LaLigaTV (UK), DAZN (Spain), others
The new Spanish season is finally upon us as the reigning champions begin their title defense: Barça kick off the 2023-24 campaign with a trip to the capital to face Getafe at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez on Sunday Night Fútbol.
The Catalans come into this one surrounded by uncertainty with three weeks left to go in the transfer market and plenty of rumors of potential exits and arrivals involving big names. They’ve also had a preseason with mostly good results and mostly uneven performances, and a few of the team’s best players are not at their best physically just yet.
This isn’t exactly the ideal time to play your first official match, especially against Getafe, and especially when it’s Getafe away. Barça have never found it easy at the Coliseum, and now that José Bordalás is back in charge the Catalans know just how tough it’ll be to survive his team’s borderline violent style in the season opener.
Getafe will be missing their top scorer in Enes Ünal so they might not be as dangerous going forward as they proved to be in their two league meetings against Barça last season, but they will be a force defensively and will require a lot of creativity from the Barça midfield, which should be much improved this season with the arrival of Ilkay Gündogan.
Oriol Romeu also adds much needed physicality to the Barça midfield, which could prove crucial against this specific opponent. This game will be about individual duels and second balls, and Barça must be prepared to match Getafe’s intensity from the start, weather the usual early storm that comes with away matches and eventually take control of the game.
This won’t be easy, but anyone expecting Getafe away to be easy is just living in fantasy land. Even if Barça were at their very best, this would be a test. In this weird time for the club and the team, it’s even more difficult.
A great performance would be a nice bonus, but it’s honestly unrealistic to expect that from them in these circumstances. Three points and winning by more than one goal would already be satisfying enough.
Let’s dance!
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Kounde, Araujo, Christensen, Balde; Pedri, Romeu, De Jong; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Gavi
Getafe (5-3-2): Soria; Suárez, Mitrovic, Duarte, Alderete, Álvarez; Aleñá, Djené, Maksimovic; Latasa, Mata
PREDICTION
Getafe away is not about beautiful football and entertainment. It’s about survival, getting kicked around for 90 minutes, and finding a way to win. And Xavi’s Barça more often than not find a way to win when things get ugly: 2-1 to the good guys.
