Real Madrid lost points on Sunday evening in the battle for the championship in Spain. The number two of LaLiga did not score in the away match against Getafe (0-0) and is now three points behind Atlético Madrid, which earlier on Sunday won 5-0 against Eibar. Barcelona is third, two points behind Real and one more match credit.
It was announced on Sunday that Zinedine Zidane would only have twelve field players at his disposal, after Federico Valverde went into mandatory self-isolation after contact with someone who had the corona virus. Zidane in particular had problems in defense: Raphaël Varane, Sergio Ramos, Ferland Mendy, Nacho Fernández, Daniel Carvajal and Lucas Vázquez, who had been turned right back, were missing for various reasons. Partly due to the major personnel problems, Zidane brought youth players Pablo Ramón, Miguel Gutiérrez, Antonio Blanco to the selection for the duel with Getafe.
There were certainly serious chances of an opening goal, especially in the first half. Jaime Mata almost hit the mark from close range in the sixth minute; a minute later the ball landed on Mathías Olivera’s thigh after a curving free kick, but just in front of Thibaut Courtois, Olivera failed to score. On the other side, a goal from Real was disallowed for offside. Mariano Díaz outplayed goalkeeper David Soria after a splitting through ball from Éder Militão and finished, but according to the arbitration was just offside when he was launched.
Midway through the first half, Real breathed a sigh of relief when Mata hit the post with a backward header, after which Getafe narrowly prevented Díaz from making it 0-1 on a Marcelo cross. After an hour, Courtois saved on a bet from Enes Ünal. Halfway through the second half, Karim Benzema made his entrance at Real, but he did not get any real opportunities to distinguish himself. Courtois had a nice save on Nemanja Maksimovic, just before contact between Militão and Ángel Rodríguez did not lead to a penalty.