
MADRID: La Liga championship chase was thrown into chaos as Barcelona stumbled to a 1-1 draw at Getafe, before leaders Atletico Madrid fell to a shocking 1-0 defeat on Saturday.
Getafe’s Mauro Arambarri’s strike cancelled out Jules Kounde’s opener to extend the visitors’ winless run in La Liga to four matches.
“It’s not done yet, we still have some matches to play and as I said before, we will fight until the end,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick told reporters.“Today it’s one point more, not two points less. We missed (out on) two points, but we have to look forwards and make it better next time.”
Barcelona are third in the standings on 39 points, five adrift of leaders Atletico, who lost at Leganes.
Kounde put the visiting side ahead in the ninth minute, beating Getafe goalkeeper David Soria from close range after a great pass from Pedri.
The French full back made a clever diagonal run into the box to take Pedri’s pass in his stride but his first effort was denied by Soria.
The goalkeeper failed to hold on to the ball, however, and Kounde stroked the rebound into the back of the net.
Barca could have extended their lead when Raphinha missed a close-range header from a Kounde cross and one minute later Getafe equalised, goalkeeper Inaki Pena saving a Coba da Costa volley but palming the ball straight to Arambarri who tapped home the rebound.
Barcelona dominated possession but struggled to breach a disciplined five-man Getafe defence with inspirational forward Lamine Yamal enduring an quiet evening along with Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha.
Barca’s best opportunity in the second half was through substitute Frankie De Jong, whose curling strike was denied by a stunning one-handed save from Soria and Raphinha missed a sitter from close range.
Kounde’s goal was Barca’s first at Getafe in over five years after they went four consecutive seasons without scoring in their league visits to the Coliseum in South Madrid, where their last win was back in September 2019.
“I am very frustrated. It’s a pity the draw,” Kounde told Movistar Plus. “We had control of the game and on one occasion they scored a goal. It’s a pity... we have not got it right... We had opportunities but we didn’t take them.”
Earlier, Antoine Griezmann missed a late penalty as Atletico’s record run of 15 consecutive victories came to an end.
Matija Nastasic nodded Leganes ahead early in the second half, with Griezmann dragging a poor penalty wide in the final stages to resign Atletico to a second defeat of the league season.
“I thought we were low on energy, it wasn’t enough from us,” Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak told DAZN. “We’ll keep our head up after (winning) 15 games, we lost this one and we have to keep going forwards... unfortunately the streak is over.”
Madrid minnows Leganes, 15th, battled well in defence to keep Atletico at bay in the first half, with Julian Alvarez and Griezmann hitting the woodwork.
Early in the second half, Serbian defender Nastasic headed Leganes in front from a corner, and they protected their advantage without much stress until controversially conceding a penalty for a debatable handball by Sergio Gonzalez.
Griezmann took responsibility from the penalty spot, but rolled his 90th-minute effort wide of the goal.
Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2025
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