Real Madrid 3 – Getafe 1: Full match recap

Real Madrid bounced back from a tough loss against Espanyol mid-week to defeat 10th place Getafe 3-1. Here is a full recap of the match.

In a match that many viewed as a warm-up for Tuesday’s clash against Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid was a focused team determined to get all three points. With a bit of a different lineup look from Zinedine Zidane, Real found great cohesion in the midfield.

Marcos Llorente made his second start playing alongside Casemiro in the starting XI for the first time this season.

First Half

The game started with possession heavily in favor of Real Madrid. Much like we saw in the loss Tuesday to Espanyol, the possession did not lead to shots or chances created. The midfield and defenders aimlessly passed the ball around hoping for a mistake from Getafe.

While there were almost no good chances early in this match, for the first 15 minutes or so, the ball movement between Llorente, Isco, and Karim Benzema was phenomenal.

All this passing and possession finally resulted in a Real Madrid goal in the 24th minute as Gareth Bale scored a bit of a lucky one as a loose ball fell right to him in the middle of the box.

The assist was credited to Isco as the ball caromed off his back and right to Bale who took the shot nicely. Not only was this an important goal for Gareth, but what made it better was that in his 117th appearance in La Liga, the most by a British born player in history, scored his 66th career league goal.

Bale didn’t slow down there as he continued to help the attack push forward and did a good job to work the ball between Benz and CR7 up front.

Just before the half, after being called offside several times before, Cristiano Ronaldo found his official 300th goal in La Liga on a beautiful assist from the Big Benz.

Real Madrid went into the locker room comfortably ahead 2-0.

Second half

The second half started out with some surprising back and forth action as Getafe tried to push back against the home team. However, former Premier League journeyman, Loïc Remy, got too aggressive and hit Nacho right in the face to draw his second yellow and force Getafe down to 10-men with over 40 minutes to play.

Real Madrid sat on the ball and pushed for a third decisive goal, however, the defense was caught out on the counter-attack leading to a penalty kick for Getafe. Nacho clipped the attacker in the box despite seeming to win the ball in the tackle.

Francisco Portillo scored from the spot in the 65th minute to get Real Madrid fan’s heart rates back up, but in the end, it was nothing more than a consolation goal. Getafe did not have another shot on target for the remainder of the match.

Ronaldo added his second on the night in the 78th minute, leaping over a Getafe defender and heading home a picture-perfect cross from the healthy Marcelo.

Marcelo was fantastic coming off the bench in the second half as he seemed to have no lingering problems with his hamstring.

Next: What is going on with Isco at Real Madrid?

All in all, it was a routine win for Los Blancos as they extend their win streak against Getafe to eight and solidify their position in third place in the league.

Of course, all attention is now firmly on PSG and the Champions League second leg match Tuesday night as Real look to hold on to a 3-1 aggregate lead.

Stay tuned to The Real Champs for more post-match coverage!