On Saturday, the over 99 thousand carriage capacity Camp Nou stadium will welcome third place Getafe, as Barcelona look forward to toppling Real Madrid and reclaiming their spot as league leaders. The Catalan club have been far from their best and it seems the squad is yet to settle with the new gameplay or tactics of their new coach. Setien who took over from fired Ernesto Valverde when Barcelona were still toping the league have seen his side usurped by a rejuvenating Madrid side, even without their star signing Eden Hazard. With Athletic Bilbao ending Barca's dream of a possible treble this season by knocking them out the Copa Del Rey, there is huge pressure on the coach to at least not go trophyless in his first season as Barca coach. For now and as usual, Barca will be grateful that they still have the services of the Argentine magician, you don't want to imagine a Barca squad without Messi yet. In all, the Laliga defending champions have got just the UEFA Champions league and the league cup to fight for, and Setien knows be can't be found wanting. A win against a resilient Getafe side will see Barca mount the first spot pending the results of Sunday game between Madrid and Celta.
Barcelona currently sits second on the table with 49 points from 23 games so far, while Madrid is leading the charge with 52 points. It's not gonna be an easy game for the home side considering Getafe's form so far this season. The visitors are confidently sitting on the third position in the league table with 42 points to their name. Apart from that, if we take a look at the stats of both teams as regards their previous 4 fixtures across all competitions, we will notice that Getafe's defence appear to be more solid than Barca, judging from the goals conceded by both teams. In those four games, Barcelona have conceded 4 goals while Getafe have kept clean sheets. It should even be more worrisome that Getafe have claimed victory over teams like Valencia and Athletic Bilbao in their last two games respectively, and those teams were able to beat Barcelona this season. Isn't that something to get your eyes rolling? But then, if we also take a look at both teams previous encounters against each other, we will notice that Barca have an upper hand. In those 5 encounters, the defending champions have cruised to victory four times while settling for one draw. Perhaps, it's always a different ball game when Barca goes against Getafe.
My Prediction: Barcelona 3-1 Getafe
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