The lowdown on Getafe CF
It's back to Camp Nou on Sunday after three away games in Alicante, Madrid and Ceuta. Getafe are the guests, and here are the bare essentials on the azulones (blues).
Where are they from?
Getafe is a district in the south of Madrid, and the site of the Cerro de los Ángeles, which is traditionally considered to be the geographical centre of the Iberian Peninsula. It’s close to the district of Leganés, so the two clubs are natural rivals.
History
Though formed in 1923, this is actually the third different incarnation of the club. The modern-day Getafe Club de Fútbol started life in the lowest tier of Spanish football in 1983 and took just two decades to become, in 2004, only the fourth club from Madrid (after Real, Atlético and Rayo Vallecano) to play in the top flight.
Nineteen years later and they are still there, having only missed one season of Liga football, and came within just two points of Champions League qualification three years ago.
Head to head
Barça had gone seventeen games without defeat to Getafe, and had only conceded three goals in the last ten of them, when the run ended with a 1-0 defeat at the Estadio Coliseum Alfonso Pérez in October 2020.
Barça got revenge by winning the next two games at Camp Nou, but the most recent meeting between the sides was a 0-0 draw in southern Madrid at the end of last season.
Indeed, generally speaking, although Barça have never found it easy to beat Getafe on their home patch, there have been some big wins at Camp Nou. In the last ten years, Barça have put six goals past them on no fewer than three occasions, and in April 2021, the Catalans won this fixture 5-2
Form guide
Getafe have only won three games this season. After a particularly dismal start to the campaign, things have slowly improved, but they are still a lowly 15th in the table, just one point above the relegation zone.
With just one defeat in seven games, they were putting together quite a nice run, but promptly lost their last two games against Sevilla and Espanyol.
Meanwhile, their Copa del Rey bid came to an early end with 2-1 defeat at second division Levante.
The squad
Most capped internationals
Djené Dakonam (Togo, 69); Nemanja Maksimović (Serbia, 43); Stefan Mitrović (Serbia, 36); Enes Ünal (Turkey, 30); Omar Alderete (Paraguay, 12); Mauro Arambarri (Uruguay, 12); Munir El Haddadi (Morocco, 11); Damian Suárez (Uruguay, 7)
Barça connections
La Masia graduate Carles Aleñá (below) played 26 games for Barça before going on loan to Real Betis and then Getafe, who purchased the central midfielder on a permanent basis last year.
Munir El Haddadi progressed from La Masia to the Barça first team, but failed to get a regular start and ended up being loaned elsewhere and eventually sold to Sevilla. Having switched national allegiances from Spain to Morocco, he joined Getafe at the start of the season.
Top scorers 2022/23
Enes Ünal (5), Borja Mayoral (4)
The boss
The widely travelled Quique Sánchez Flores is into the second year of his third stint in charge of Getafe. Best known as a player for his time at Valencia, that is also the club where he made his name as a manager.
His greatest success was probably winning the Europa League with Atlético Madrid, and his also has the experience of coaching abroad, in the UAE, in China and with Watford in England.