A Barça team down to ten men for 51 minutes held on for a heroic victory against a no nonsense Getafe team who seemed intent on kicking Barça into submission. After Madrid’s victory it was imperative for Barça to win. From the beginning the referee Perez Burrull seemed to show a difference in criteria for the two teams. Xavi was shown the yellow card after 5 minutes for a tackle from behind, while Casquero went unpunished after three similar fouls in the first 14 minutes. Casquero was eventually booked after 25 minutes, but his team mates continued to hack away at Barça. In the 39th minute Ronaldinho received the ball while tightly marked by Belenguer, the Getafe defender first held Ronaldinho’s shirt while aiming a couple of kicks at him and when Ronaldinho finally fell to the floor he gave him another kick. Ronaldinho reacted from the floor by kicking back and seemed to catch Belenguer where it hurts most. Perhaps he deserved the red card but if the ref had not been so lenient with Getafe’s excesses, it would not have come to this.
It was a shame because Ronnie was having one of his more inspired games. After only 2 minutes he put Barça ahead after great work from Eto’o. Messi found Eto’o in a bit of space and he ran between the two centre-backs, holding off the challenge of Belenguer before squaring to Ronaldinho as the keeper came out. Ronaldinho who was marginally onside finished comfortably. Barça played some good football in the first half but were missing the final pass. After 32 minutes Puyol went close with a header from Deco’s free kick, and two minutes later Eto’o almost curled one over Abbondanzieri’s head but the keeper palmed the ball away.
The crowd got behind Barça in the second half, convinced they had been hard done by, and the players responded superbly. It was nearly 2-0 after 57 minutes when Messi made a great run before freeing Deco on the right, his cross was met by the head of Eto’o but a defender just managed to divert the ball wide. From the resulting corner, first Messi had a header cleared off the line and then after a scramble managed another shot which went for another corner.
Getafe brought on Albin and Pachón after an hour and with his first kick Pachón almost equalized forcing Valdés into a fine save low to his left. Deco then nearly surprised Abbondanzieri from a free kick from wide on the left when most expected him to cross. Then on 70 minutes Celestini fluffed a good chance for Getafe, miscueing his volley over the bar.
As time passed, memories of Betis came flooding back: could Barça hold on? Messi and Eto’o were still causing problems up front but Barça were gradually giving up possession with the idea of getting behind the ball and retaining their lead. In the 81st minute Camp Nou breathed a collective sigh of relief, for once Puyol missed his tackle but when the cross came in, Oleguer, on as a sub for Belletti, intervened brilliantly in front of Casquero to save the day. Valdes dealt well with one more long range effort from Celestini and Barça held on. In many ways a better performance than last week’s 0-6 drubbing of Atletico.Valdés…………………7.5

Belletti…………………7
(Oleguer,62)………….7.5
Thuram……………….6.5
Puyol…………………..7
Gio……………………..7.5

Edmilson………………7
Xavi……………………7
(Iniesta,93)………….–
Deco…………………..8

Messi…………………..8.5
(Motta,90)…………….–
Eto’o……………………7.5
Ronaldinho…………….6