La Liga champions Real Madrid crashed to a shock 2-1 defeat at derby rivals Getafe on Sunday to leave them five points behind rivals Barcelona after only two games of the new season.
Madrid’s slow start to the season has already seen them held 1-1 at home to Valencia in the league followed by a 3-2 defeat to Barcelona in the Spanish Super Copa first leg, before this latest loss.
Gonzalo Higuain put Madrid ahead after 26 minutes but their lack of height in the air returned to haunt them as Juan Valera’s header put Getafe level after 52 minutes.
Madrid pressed forward looking for the winner but instead they were caught napping at the back, allowing Abdelaziz Barrada to score the winning goal in the 74th minute.
“It was a deserved win for Getafe but they didn’t do anything special and we were very poor,” said Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho.
“It was an unacceptable performance and I don’t feel frustrated about the result because it was totally deserved.”
After a mixed opening at Getafe, Madrid began to assert themselves and Mesut Ozil was guilty of a horrible miss in the 15th minute when he hit the crossbar with the goal open after a neat combination with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Higuain had been picked ahead of Karim Benzema and he gave the visitors the lead from Angel Di Maria’s pass, using his strength to round the goalkeeper and slot the ball home.
After the break, Getafe came out looking to attack and got their reward thanks to poor marking from Madrid, with the unmarked Valera heading in from a free-kick.
Los Blanco’s pushed forward looking to regain the lead but instead Getafe struck again, with Adrian Colunga going past Raul Albiol and setting up Barrada to score.
Earlier in the day Barcelona’s Lionel Messi wearing Barca’s away kit that reminded me of a zoom ice lolly scored a brace to give his side a 2-1 win over Osasuna.
Barcelona is now top of La Liga on goal difference and five points clear of rivals Real Madrid.
