For this difficult match, Guardiola’s lineup consisted of Victor Valdés in goal with Maxwell, Piqué, Milito, and Abidal in defense. The midfield consisted of Touré Yayá, Keita, and Xavi supporting the front three of Iniesta, Ibrahimovic and Messi. Guardiola opted not to start Henry or Pedro and instead went with Iniesta who has featured a bit in the front three in the past this season. A win today would stretch Barcelona’s lead atop of the standings to eight points for the time being until Real Madrid plays their fixture against Espanyol.

Getafe started the game a bit too relaxed and Barcelona is made them pay for their lackluster style of football. Barcelona were enjoying great possession near Getafe’s box. In the third minute, Messi delivered a nice shot on goal from outside the box that just sailed wide. 3 minutes later, Messi would make sure he would not miss his next shot from outside the box.

In the 6^th minute, Barcelona took the lead courtesy of Messi’s 16^th league goal. It all started when Xavi had his shot deflect off a Getafe player for a corner kick. During the ensuing corner kick, the ball fell to Keita whose header was too weak but allowed him to keep the ball and his pass to Messi outside the box allowed Messi to bend his shot to the left post and give Barcelona the lead. The goal was the 16^th league goal for Messi who is currently the league leader in scoring.

After a wasted scoring chance off a corner in the 7^th minute by Getafe, Barcelona would have their next scoring chance from Messi again in the 13^th minute. The scoring chance originated after Barcelona won the ball back and Messi had the ball in front of the keeper but he lobbed the ball over the keeper. However, there was no one is there to tap in the ball. A few minutes later, Messi would have another shot on goal after Maxwell won the ball back and dribbled into the box before passing it to Messi. However, Messi’s shot was right at the keeper.

Messi would continue to threaten Getafe’s keeper and in the 18^th minute, Messi would again have another scoring chance. The play began with Messi passing the ball to Maxwell who quickly back heeled the ball back to Messi. Messi then passed the ball Ibrahimovic who returned the ball back to Messi instantaneously but Messi’s shot was stopped by the keeper’s foot for a corner kick.  Twenty minutes into the game and Barcelona has completely dominated the possession while Getafe appear to be part of the attendance, watching the free flowing football with the spectators. However that would not last long.

Getafe now were going to try to capitalize on their extra man advantage and Guardiola decided to have his team play in a 4-3-2 formation with Touré Yayá  sliding into Piqué’s spot and Messi and Ibrahimovic playing up front alone. In the 32^nd minute, Valdés saved a dangerous shot from outside the box and six minutes later, Valdés would save another dangerous shot from Miku.

Barcelona were slowly adjusting to being a man down and began to control possession and in the 39^th minute, could have extended their lead when Ibrahimovic’s cross to Xavi resulted in a header effort that went straight to the keeper. Ibrahimovic would then go from provider to shooter in the 42^nd minute thanks to Messi stealing the ball in the midfield and then delivered a through ball to Ibrahimovic. Ibrahimovic was able to evade the keeper but his shot was unfortunately saved by Getafe’s Rafa by deflecting the shot on goal out for a corner kick. That would be their last chance of the half and the referee would signal the end of the first half after the one minute of injury time expired.

The second half brought no changes from Guardiola and Barcelona would be tested early on from a Getafe side. Just two minutes in, Valdés again came to the rescue as a dangerous crossed was whipped in and Soldado’s shot on goal went right to Valdés. A few minutes later, Guardiola decided to change things around by bringing in Busquets for Ibrahimovic. It looked like Guardiola was going to play a 4-4-1 formation, with Messi as the lone striker for the remainder of the game.

The move would pay off as Barcelona were beginning to enjoy more possession now. In the 57^th minute, Guardiola made his second substitution of the game when he took off Touré Yayá for Rafa Márquez with Touré Yayá getting applause from the home crowd for his hard work. A minute later, Barcelona’s Keita would squander his first scoring chance to double Barcelona’s lead. The scoring chance came from some great passing from the Barcelona men which started with Messi passing to Xavi, who back heeled the Iniesta near the edge of the penalty box. Iniesta then passed the ball to sprinting Keita ho would shake off one defender and find himself alone with the keeper but his shot somehow failed to hit the target. Sadly this would not Keita’s only squandered scoring opportunity.

Even though Barcelona might have felt pleased with scoring a second goal with just ten players, the players, Guardiola, his staff and the fans all felt that they were hard done by the referee. After back to back challenges on Keita and Messi were ignored by the referee, not to mention failing to book Ríos for what seemed to be a dive inside the penalty box in the first half, Vitienes started getting an earful from the fans and just about everyone else. The fans even started waiving white handkerchiefs to show their disapproval of his officiating. It got so bad that in the 74^th minute, one of the fitness coaches, Aureli Altimira, was ejected from the game by Mr. Vitienes for dissent.

However, Barcelona kept playing hard while Getafe found it difficult to impose their will even with the extra player advantage.  Barcelona still did not sit back and sit on their lead and in the 80^th minute, Messi blasted a blistering shot from outside the box that the keeper managed to stop and the ball went out for a corner. Keita would then squander his second golden chance to get a goal three minutes. The scoring chance began after Messi’s movement with the ball from the midfield to the edge of Getafe’s box resulted in Messi passing the ball to Xavi who would then pass the ball to Keita who was sprinting down the left side of the field. Once again, Keita found himself in a great position to get a goal but sadly failed to hit the target again when he scoffed his shot wide for the goal kick. In between those plays, Busquets managed to get booked for a rash challenge.

With five minutes left in the game, the outcome of the game seemed certain to remain in favor of Barcelona protecting a 2-0 lead. With just 10 players, they had 52% of the possession, which was down from the 60% of possession that they had in the first half. Gabi Milito was in great form and performed well and the midfield was giving Getafe trouble. Although Keita missed those two golden chances, he put in a work horse effort with his nonstop running all over the field that reminded fans why he was signed from Sevilla.

However, the last few minutes of the game would be unfortunate for Barcelona.  Getafe still had their moments when it came to threatening Barcelona’s goal. In the 88^th minute, a poor cross from Getafe transformed into a shot on goal that went straight to Valdés. A minute later, another dangerous cross was poorly finished off by Soldado as his shot went wide. Guardiola then decided in the 89^th minute to replace Iniesta for Pedro. This was Iniesta’s 200^th league appearance as a Barcelona player, the 37^th player in the history of the club to do.

Soldado stepped up and converted the penalty to reduce Barcelona’s lead to a one goal lead. The fans of course were irate and out came the white handkerchiefs again. Now all was needed was for Getafe to score another goal to cause Barcelona to drop points to their arch rival Real Madrid. Fortunately, Barcelona kept playing hard, even with only nine men on the pitch. In the fourth minute of extra time, Messi managed to get a shot on goal that just sailed wide.

Match Info:

FC Barcelona: Valdés; Maxwell, Piqué, Milito, Abidal, Touré Yayá (Márquez, m.58), Xavi, Keita, Messi, Ibrahimovic (Busquets, m.52) & Iniesta (Pedro, m.90).

Getafe: Codina; Miguel Torres, Cata, Rafa, Mané (Manu del Moral, m.56); Parejo (Casquero, m.64), Boateng, Albín; Pedro Ríos, Soldado & Miku (Kepa, m.77)

Goals: 1-0, Messi (m.7). 2-0, Xavi (min. 2-1, m.90+3: Soldado (penalty).

Referee: Teixeira Vitienes

Bookings:  Mané (m.17), Maxwell (m.24), Xavi (m.27), Boateng (m.53), Casquero (m.80) and Busquets (m.82).

Red Cards: Gerard Piqué (m.25) and Márquez (m.92).