Barcelona have won their seventh consecutive match to begin the new La Liga campaign and remain four points clear at the top of the table thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win over Getafe at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium on Wednesday night. Robert Lewandowski scored an early goal and the home team dominated the entire game, but missed too many chances and had to settle for a narrow victory to claim all three points at home and maintain their perfect record.

FIRST HALF

Getafe made a strong start to the game, taking more initiative than expected early on and causing problems with their high pressing and creating a great chance when a cross by Álex Sola found the head of former Blaugrana Carles Pérez, who forced an excellent save out of Iñaki Peña less than 10 minutes into the game.

Barça eventually started taking control but struggled initially to find spaces inside Getafe’s low block, until the Catalans began finding success down the right side with the partnership of Lamine Yamal and Jules Kounde, who constantly interacted and put left-back Juan Iglesias in trouble time and time again.

And it was one of those combinations down the right that led to the opening goal: Yamal found the overlapping run of Kounde who had his cross poorly deflected by goalkeeper David Soria, and Robert Lewandowski was quickest to the mistake to put Barça in front with an easy finish.

Barça grew in confidence after the goal and started to have full control of the ball, and made some beautiful passing combinations through the middle to find spaces inside the visitors’ defense. But they couldn’t get the final pass right, and often settled for shots from outside the box as they struggled to unlock Getafe’s backline for a second time. Their best chance came when Pablo Torre played a wonderful through ball to find Lewandowski all alone inside the box, but his shot went straight at Soria.

The away side did nothing to threaten Peña again and mostly looked to avoid conceding a second goal before the break, and they managed to complete the task as the halftime whistle came to end an opening period in which Barça dominated the ball but weren’t as efficient creating and finishing chances, and the game was still open ahead of the final 45 minutes.

SECOND HALF

Barça came out to begin the second half looking more like the unstoppable offense from their first six games: the Blaugrana were quicker and more unpredictable with their passing and movement, and were more precise in the final third to finally start breaking down the Getafe structure with more regularity and danger.

The Blaugrana had several good moments in the first 15 minutes of the second half, and Yamal almost scored a screamer that was denied by a brilliant save from Soria. Ferran Torres was introduced at the hour mark to try and add even more juice to the attack, and Barça’s second goal looked like a matter of time.

Raphinha and Yamal each came agonizingly close to finding the net as we reached the final 20 minutes, but Getafe were somehow still not out of it as we moved towards the deciding moments. Hansi Flick decided to add more control in midfield as Pedri came on for Lewandowski with 15 minutes left, and the magician immediately went to work as he took hold of the ball and kept the machine running smoothly.

Eric García missed a massive chance right after Pedri came on, Raphinha wasted an easy header a few minutes later, and Barça were at the point where they could be made to pay for so many missed opportunities.

Getafe certainly brought the danger with a few crosses into the box that required some great defending by Pau Cubarsí and the Blaugrana backline, and the Catalans were forced to dig deep at the very end to ensure they’d get all three points. But the final whistle came to guarantee their win, and Barça are still perfect seven games into the new league season.

This was definitely not Barça’s best performance under Flick so far but they played much better than the score suggests, and some regression to the mean was to be expected considering just how exceptional their attack had been up until tonight.

Barça’s resilience was on show again, and they are still perfect with seven deserved victories in the league and a team that fans can enjoy watching and rooting for.