Villarreal dominate Getafe in nervy 1-0 win

I thought maybe Getafe would actually—you know—play football in the Ceramica, but boy, was I wrong. Within the first two minutes they committed two bookable fouls, and probably should have ended the game with 8 players. Credit to Villarreal for remaining focused and resisting the temptation to repay in kind.

The first ten minutes were disjointed but once play settled down Villarreal controlled it. Getafe were obviously concerned with Samu on the right wing and fouled him extensively, but overloading their backline to that side to deal with him left Quintillà and Moi free to direct things down the right.

Referee Jaime Latre had a terrible first 20 minutes, but how he missed Djene plowing into Moi from behind going for a ball in the area I don’t know. No penalty, no VAR review. Villarreal should have scored at least one goal in the first half, though—-first Trigueros headed over a wide-open net (Quintillà providing the cross), then Gerard hit the crossbar from an almost identical chance (Moi with the pass this time).

HT Villarreal 0-0 Getafe

Getafe coach Bordalas wasn’t satisfied, withdrawing Portillo and Molina for Olivera and danger man Àngel. That didn’t work out so well.

Villarreal took the lead in the 51st minute—Anguissa made a great run, holding off two defenders, and got a shot that keeper Soria saved—but only as far as Moi, who guided the ball home. And within 10 minutes Villarreal were a man up as well— Olivera, who had just been booked for holding back Samu on a break, made an ill-advised, late challenge on Iborra and was sent off.

The game dynamic didn’t change that much with Getafe down a man, because Villarreal were controlling it anyway. Samu couldn’t quite get a shot off in time after one of his runs—Cucurella, who was far and away Getafe’s best player, managed to get in front to block it—Toko Ekambi saw Soria push his shot against the post, then blasted the rebound over from a foot away—Gerard won a penalty but saw it negated for a marginal offside, per VAR—Toko Ekambi spun and shot wide when a pass to the wide-open Gerard would have been better—then Ontiveros was equally selfish when he could have passed to the wide-open Ekambi.

Somewhere in there both Mata and Damian Suarez got away with cardable offenses (both already on yellows) but the only real offense Getafe could muster was Mata flinging himself to the ground in the box after Albiol cleared a Cucurella free kick.

Referee Latre did manage to book Angel, though he forgot to play the advantage rule and called back a Villarreal 2-on-1 (maybe he thought we’d screw it up anyway?). In the dying throes of injury time Getafe won a corner, brought Soria up for it, but it was easily cleared—it would have been nice if we’d had a shot at the open goal, but no matter, the whistle blew and we had won.

FT Villarreal 1-0 Getafe

This was a good performance from Villarreal except for the finishing. It could easily have been 2-0 at HT and 4 or 5-0 at FT. No matter, three points are three points.

MOTM: Zambo Anguissa. For his run to set up the goal, but also his 3 tackles, 8 balls won in the air, and general control in midfield. And being fouled 5 times (same as Samu).

Also very good: Moi (he really deserved the goal), Trigueros in first half especially, and Mario in second half especially. But pretty much everyone played well—it was just the selfishness in the box that kept us from scoring goals.

Not sure what happened to Rubèn Peña, who was dropped from the squad late on. Moi displayed his jersey after scoring and made a reference to him after the match. Sounds like some sort of family issue—we hope everyone is OK.

A nice win that puts us 9th in the table, at least for now. And victories over #3 and #4 in their last two weeks.

Spare a thought for Marc Cucurella, condemned to play beautiful football for an anti-football team :)

Oh, I almost forgot: possession 65-35 Villarreal, shots 11-7 Villarreal, shots on target 4-0, shots from open play 11-4. Getafe led in fouls, 17-8.