La Liga Preview: Barcelona - Getafe

What: La Primera Division
Who: Barcelona (1st, 28pts) v Getafe (12th, 13pts)
When: 19:00 CET - Sunday, November 23, 2008
Where: Camp Nou, Barcelona

Nov 22, 2008 6:45:09 PM

Toure - De la Red - Milito - Barcelona-Getafe (Marca)

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Toure - De la Red - Milito - Barcelona-Getafe (Marca)

Teams

Getafe are facing the same dilemma that the majority of teams will have to consider this season as they try to work out the best way of stopping Barcelona from winning in Camp Nou.

Los Azulones head to the Catalan capital looking to become the first team since Racing Santander, on the second weekend of the campaign, to stop the Blaugrana from earning maximum points from in front of their own fans.

In recent years, Getafe have been tipped to achieve something given their impressive runs under Quique Sánchez Flores, Bernd Schuster and Michael Laudrup.

That trio lifted the club from the suburbs of Madrid into uncharted territory, and hopes were high that things would continue along the same lines this term.

Instead, the upward movement has stopped and the club are neither challenging for the top nor in serious danger of going down, at least at the moment; but there is discontent.

Frustration Felt

After beating Valladolid by a single goal in late October, Getafe drew two matches before losing their last three - and that has proved too much for some supporters, who called for coach Víctor Muñoz to go last week.

Sevilla may be one of the teams set to challenge for a top spot, and maybe even the title, but the frustation felt by the home fans in the Coliseum was evident as they felt that their side should not have lost.

In the build-up to the trip to Camp Nou, Getafe are trying to make all the right noises by stating that beating Barça is not impossible, but it is not said with the greatest conviction.

Playing in such an arena may inspire certain sides, but on the whole it intimidates visitors and lifts the hosts and when the hosts are playing as well as Barça, it is a difficult scenario for away teams.

Pep Guardiola's bandwagon rolled on last weekend at Recreativo, and the young coach has shown that he is an expert at keeping his squad's feet firmly on the ground. Nobody will be considering that this encounter will be a stroll in the park.

RECENT FORM

Barcelona

16/11 A 2-0 Recreativo
12/11 H 1-0 Benidorm
08/11 H 6-0 Valladolid
04/11 H 1-1 Basel
01/11 A 4-1 Málaga
28/10 A 1-0 Benidorm

Getafe

16/11 H 0-2 Sevilla
13/11 A 0-1 Osasuna
09/11 H 0-3 Valencia
02/11 H 1-1 Recreativo
29/10 H 0-0 Osasuna
26/10 H 1-0 Valladolid

TEAM NEWS

Barcelona

As usual for home matches, Guardiola will not name his squad until the morning of the match, but Lionel Messi will not be in it. Aliaksandr Hleb and Thierry Henry will take the Argentinian's place, according to reports.

Probable Starting XI: Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Márquez, Touré, Xavi, Busquets, Hleb, Henry, Eto'o

Getafe

Muñoz has named an 18-man squad for the game and is likely to try and make his side more defensive than they normally would be in order to contain the opposition.

Probable Starting XI: Pato, Contra, Cata Díaz, Mario, Licht, Casquero, Gavilán, Granero, Polanski, Albín, Soldado

PREDICTION

Regularly looking forward to Barcelona matches means that one week a prediction of a win for Guardiola's will turn out to be wrong, unless they really can go through the entire campaign without another defeat, but it is literally guesswork as to when and if that will be. At home against Getafe though is not one of the occasions when it is a huge risk to go for another three points for the Catalan outfit and then look to the next away game to see if a potential banana skin awaits.

Barcelona 3 - 1 Getafe

Lucas Brown, Goal.com

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