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FC Barcelona 2 v Getafe CF 1

Saturday, 19 Mar 2011

Team gift win to Abidal (2-1)

Roger Bogunyà

The team gave their stricken team mate Eric Abidal, as well as their fans, a great present with the three points against Getafe that take them one more step towards the title. Alves and Bojan were Barça’s scorers.

With the league taking a break next week, Barça can go into the period happy with tonight’s three points after a comfortable win over Getafe, The team put in a typically assured game despite the enforced absences of Abidal, Maxwell, Puyol and Pedro and a thundering shot from Alves and a second goal from Bojan, who was celebrating 100 La Liga games tonight gave them the points despite a late Manu del Moral consolation for the visitors.

Spectacular Alves strike

Guardiola had warned ahead of this game that it was the type of match that could lose a league title and the team came out with that lesson clearly well drilled into them, showing pace, good passing and plenty of skill as they set about breaking down the Getafe defence. The visitors were soon trapped in their own half, though they did show flashes of good skill and control, and a Barça goal looked to be a matter of sooner rather than later. It nearly came with an overhead kick from Messi, but it finally fell to Alves with a stunning first time strike from the edge of the box to open the scoring.

Goal fails to materialise

Now Barça began to turn up the heat, but with Xavi and Iniesta well marked in the middle, it was Piqué –with two great raking passes - who created two good chances for Villa. The Spanish striker was off target with his efforts and also earned himself a yellow for diving after he’d previously complained to the ref for not awarding a penalty. Messi and Xavi also sent shots wide of the mark and Valdés had to make a great stop from Casquero with Getafe’s only attempt, to avoid the visitors drawing level. The second wasn’t coming, but the crowd were enjoying the game, especially on 22 minutes when they roared their approval for the team’s number 22 –Abidal.

Bojan marks his century with a goal

After all the chances in the first half, the second goal came with the first attack after the break – Bojan’s effort going in off Cata Díaz after the young Catalan striker had been set up by good work from Adriano. Soon after he was replaced by Keita, but he’d made his mark yet again -this time on his 100th league appearance.

Del Moral gets one back

Barça had plenty of opportunities to extend their lead, but failed to put them away, allowing the visitors to give them a slight fright as Manu del Moral got between the two centre backs and put away a right wing cross on 87 minutes and in the final seconds Getafe even had the chance to claim a famous, if undeserved draw that would have been harsh indeed on a far superior Barça side.

The goals

1-0, Alves (min 16)

2-0, Bojan (min 49)

2-1, Manu (min 87)

Credit: FC Barcelona (www.fcbarcelona.com)