La Liga Preview: Atlético Madrid – Getafe

What: La Liga, Matchday 15
Who: Atlético Madrid (4th, 27pts) vs Getafe (10th, 18pts)
When: Sunday, 9th December 2007, 1900 CET
Where: Estadio Vicente Calderón, Madrid


It's a mini derby this weekend as Madrid area clubs Atlético Madrid and Getafe square off with more than just bragging rights at stake.

Both teams will be eager to extend their recent run of good form and continue their surge up the standings.

Keeping It Clean

Atlético Madrid appear to have steadied their ship after some topsy turvy performances lately. They have climbed up to fourth place in the table and are just a solitary point behind joint-second placed sides Barcelona and Villarreal.

However, it is often when they are starting to look like a real threat to the frontrunners that they start to choke and slip up. But all that could be about to change as coach Javier Aguirre hopes that the team's recent transformation of mentality in their playing style will lead to more consistent displays and wins.

The improvement has been justified by the three consecutive clean sheets that they have kept in all competitions and Aguirre seems to have finally found the right harmony between defence and attack.

It is evident that in those three matches, the rojiblancos have toned down slightly on their reckless attacking football and they now appear to be playing smarter and more efficiently.

It might deprive the fans of the value-for-money seven goal thrillers but, at the end of the day, it is the three points that matter most when the final whistle is blown.

Mission Accomplished

It was that mature performance that helped Los Colchoneros all but seal a place in the last 32 of the UEFA Cup, thanks to the 0-2 win at FC Copenhagen last Wednesday.

This will be a huge relief for Aguirre as he can now shift the focus back to La Liga, although the Mexican has stated quite clearly that he will still demand a win in the final Group B clash against Panathinaikos in two weeks' time to ensure they finish top of the pile.

Danish Delight

Atléti weren't the only ones who returned from Denmark with three precious points during their midweek European excursion. Michael Laudrup's first return to his homeland since taking over at Getafe ended in victory when Los Azulones edged past Aalborg BK 1-2 to take one step closer to securing their own berth in the next phase of the same tournament.

On the domestic front, the Madrid-based outfit are now unbeaten in their last five games - winning four and drawing the other. It is an impressive run that has suddenly thrust the modest side up to 10th in the table after being anchored to the relegation zone for the first two months of the campaign.

But their poor record on the road still remains a concern for the Danish coach. In seven away outings so far in the league, Getafe have managed only one win and one draw. It is a statistic that will indeed be worrisome for Laudrup when his boys go up against an Atlético side who have been simply menacing at home.

One thing the 43 year-old Dane can count on is the extra motivation his players will exhibit whenever they come face to face with the big guns in the league. Earlier in the season, they forced Real Madrid to grind out a scrappy 0-1 win at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez and just four weeks ago at the same venue, they humbled Barcelona with a stunning 2-0 victory.

FORM GUIDE

Atlético Madrid

Dec 05 FC Copenhagen vs Atlético 0-2 (UEFA CUP)

Dec 02 Real Betis vs Atlético 0-2 (LA LIGA)

Nov 29 Atlético vs Aberdeen 2-0 (UEFA CUP)

Nov 25 Atlético vs Real Valladolid 4-3 (LA LIGA)

Nov 11 Almería vs Atlético 0-0 (LA LIGA)

Getafe

Dec 06 AaB vs Getafe 1-2 (UEFA CUP)

Dec 02 Getafe vs Levante 2-1 (LA LIGA)

Nov 29 Getafe vs Hapoel Tel Aviv 1-2 (UEFA CUP)

Nov 25 Real Zaragoza vs Getafe 1-1 (LA LIGA)

Nov 10 Getafe vs Barcelona 2-0 (LA LIGA)


TEAM NEWS

Atlético Madrid

Goalkeeper Leo Franco is out of action until January after tearing is right quadricep muscle late in the game at Betis a week ago. Italian Christian Abbiati, who looked sharp in Wednesday's UEFA Cup win, will continue to stand in for the Argentine.

Colombian Luis Amaranto Perea has made a full recovery from an ankle injury and after being deployed as an unused sub against FC Copenhagen, he should re-assume his rightback role for this game ahead of Fabiano Eller. Aguirre also looks set to reinstate midfield trio Maniche, Raúl García and Maxi into the starting line-up after giving them a chance to rest in midweek, although all three eventually came on as substitutes.

Probable Starting XI (4-4-2): Abbiati - Perea, Pablo, Zé Castro, Pernía - Maxi ©, Maniche, Raúl Garcia, Reyes/Simão - Forlán, Agüero

Getafe

Javier Casquero and Francisco Sousa were both omitted for the trip to Denmark in midweek to nurse their minor niggles and the pair appear to have shrugged off their knocks successfully and will return to the fray in midfield.

Swiss player Fabio Celestini made a comeback against AaB after being sidelined for six weeks due to a hernia operation and will stake his claim for a place in the line-up should either of the above mentioned duo fail to recover in time.

Probable Starting XI (4-4-2): Abondanzieri - Cortés, Díaz, Belenguer ©, Licht - Granero, De la Red, Casquero, Sousa - Braulio, Uche


PLAYERS TO WATCH

Atlético Madrid - Diego Forlán

The Uruguayan hitman has wasted no time integrating himself back into the team after making a full recovery from injury, scoring in two of the three matches that he started in since his return. As he continues to regain match sharpness, it will only be a matter of time before he begins firing on all cylinders again.

Getafe - Esteban Granero

The highly promising attacking midfielder scored a cracker of a goal in midweek against AaB and his confidence would have been aptly boosted ahead of this clash. The 20 year old will be hoping to increase his stock even further with a repeat performance against their city rivals on Sunday.


PREDICTION

In the six previous meetings between the two sides in the Primera División, Atlético have chalked up three wins, with only one going to Getafe, although this came as recently as September 2005 at the Calderón. But the home sides will be clear favourites this time around as the visitors are struggling on their travels. The scoreline, however, will be less predictable. With Atléti, you never know how many the are going to score. Or concede.

Atlético Madrid 3-1 Getafe

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=506400

Getafe squad list


The manager of Getafe Michael Laudrup has given the 18 player squad list for the match against Atletico de Madrid: Ustari, Pato, Contra, Cata Díaz, Belenguer, Mario, Licht, Cortés, Celestini, De la Red, Nacho, Pallardó, Casquero, Pablo Hernández, Granero, Manu, Albín and Kepa.

Javier Aguirre only has one doubt about the starting eleven


Atletico de Madrid held their final training session of the week with a closed-door practice at Vicente Calderon Stadium to finish up their preparation for the match that they’ll play on Sunday against Getafe.

Javier Aguirre will be unable to count on injured players Leo Franco, Seitaridis and Jurado, as well as Pablo, who will miss the match due to suspension and will be replaced by Perea. The only doubt of the Mexican manager is at right-back, where either Antonio López or Valera, who has once again been included in a squad list, will play.

Apart from this unknown, the rest of the players who will make up the starting line-up are the following: Abbiati, Eller, Perea, Pernía, Maniche, Raúl García, Simao, Maxi, Agüero and Forlán.

The squad list given by the Atletico head coach is formed by the following 18 players:

1 Falcón
3 Antonio López.
4 Pernía.
6 Cléber Santana.
7 Forlán.
8 Raúl García.
9 Luis García.
10 Agüero.
11 Maxi Rodríguez.
12 Eller.
13 Abbiati.
14 Zé Castro.
17 Reyes.
18 Maniche.
20 Mista.
21 Perea.
23 Valera.
24 Simão.

the ref should be banned from reffering for a while because i think this is one of the most ref ever and now thers 7 mins added on time

Atletico de Madrid beats Getafe by the minimum in a crazy match (1-0)


Atletico de Madrid kept their winning streak alive, although surely nobody can remember a victory in which they had to suffer so much as they did against Getafe. There wasn’t much football played, but plenty of emotion, intensity and many cards… Clos Gómez ended up playing a role just as important, or more than, any of the players. The two teams both ended the match with nine players and Getafe with Contra defending their goal. In the end, a single goal from Forlán 19 minutes in decided a match in which Abbiati was the indisputable hero for the home squad.

Javier Aguirre’s team made it to the interval with the lead, but the truth is that they never looked comfortable on the pitch during the first half. Getafe, with their lines pushed way up, kept Atletico from starting up their attacks cleanly. Also, the quality of Laudrup’s midfield once again shone from the opening whistle and obligated the Atleti defense to multiply in the opening half. Getafe gave the first warning in the 7th minute, but Raúl García got back just in time to save Abbiati when Granero was about to shoot all by himself in front of the goal.

Atletico, with little room to manoeuvre in the midfield, appeared excessively imprecise in their passes. Nevertheless, as there’s been plenty of firepower and skill this season, the home side took advantage of their first occasion to score. It all began with a goal-kick taken by Abbiati, the ball fell to Simao, and after taking it down to the touchline his low cross found Forlán, who doesn’t miss from that close.

This tally, far from calming Atletico, woke up Getafe and the visiting side became more stuck in and had the equaliser in sight three times in the next three minutes. First, Cata Díaz took a free-kick and his missile went just wide; immediately following, Granero’s try off a direct kick just missed the other post; and to finish, Albín found himself in all alone in front of an empty goal after a pass from Pablo Hernández, but he arrived a tad too late and his sliding shot went inches wide.

Atletico de Madrid, taken aback in those moments, gave a serious warning to Getafe to leave it clear that they were still alive. Pernía took a free-kick from the right and Pato’s hand and then the crossbar ruined the left-back’s plans.

The match became rough, and this paralyzed both teams for a few minutes. The constant interruptions during the final stretch of the first half kept the two teams from attacking the opposing goals with many ideas, and only late shots from Manu and Simao lent some emotion to a match that was too stagnant.

Cards and more cards
The second half began with both teams fired up and another chance for Getafe. This time they had two shots in a row to level. Granero let fly from outside the area, Abbiati blocked the shot with one hand, but the ball bounced a couple of metres in the air and off the crossbar; Albín, who was following up the play and found himself practically alone, headed the ball towards the goal but again the Italian goalkeeper got another hand on the ball just as it was about to cross the goal line. The Italian began to drive the visitors mad.

In the following action, Kun took the ball down to the end of the opposing area after dribbling Pato and fell to the ground before getting off a shot. After a couple of uncertain instants and after consulting with his linesman, the referee decided to give Agüero a yellow card for simulating a penalty.

The match continued red hot on the pitch and little-by-little the stands felt their temperature increase as well. And they really got piping hot when Kun was again booked on another similar play. He arrived at the far post to shoot, lost his balance in the air and the referee considered that he touched the ball with his hand.

With Reyes on for Simão, the match became uphill for Atletico de Madrid. There was lots of time left and Getafe was fixated on the Atleti goal, even though their was more time spent with the ball stopped than in play, which favoured Javier Aguirre’s side.

The match went completely crazy as time passed. The teams became equal when Licht saw his second yellow and had to head for the dressing room, but the match leaned in Atleti’s favour when Abbondanzieri also was sent off and Contra had to take his place in goal because Laudrup had already made his three substitutions. With all this going on, there is little to say about the play, as it was almost inexistent with so many happenings.

And things didn’t stop there, as the emotion grew even more when a foul in the midfield by Reyes ended with him being shown a direct red card that once again evened the playing field for the two teams.

Atletico tried to put Contra to the test, and the field player-turned-keeper had to stretch out awkwardly on the pitch, as there’s a reason he’s not normally a goalkeeper, to keep Atletico from putting the match away at the far post on a play that really wasn’t that dangerous. A play that was dangerous was a shot from Kepa in minute 86, but a flying save from Abbiati saved Atletico once again.

The final stretch of the match, with seven minutes of added time, was a constant suffering for Atletico de Madrid, now closed down in back and trying desperately to clear away everything that arrived anywhere near their area. Getafe sent all their players towards the Atletico goal, and despite this fact, the home squad was unable to mount even a single dangerous counter-attack, With the fans with their hearts in their throats, the final minutes carried along with them an unimaginable intensity, but in the end the clock did its work and Atletico de Madrid came away with three hard-earned points.



ATLETICO DE MADRID, 1 (Forlán); GETAFE, 0.

Atletico de Madrid: Abbiati; Antonio López, Perea, Eller, Pernía; Maniche, Raúl García, Simão (Reyes, 59’), Maxi (Santana, 88’); Forlán (Luis García, 90’) and Kun Agüero.

Getafe: Abbondanzieri; Cortés (Contra, 65´), Cata Díaz, Mario (Berenguer, 46’), Licht; Casquero (Kepa, 75’), De la Red, Granero, Pablo Hernández; Albín and Manu del Moral.

Referee: Clos Gómez. For Atletico de Madrid sent off the team physical trainer, Juan Iribarren (69’), the goalkeeper coach, Miguel Bastón (74’) and Reyes (77’), and sent off Agüero for double yellow (51’ and 65’). Also showed yellow cards to Maniche (33’), Raúl García (82’) and Maxi (88’); for Getafe sent off Licht (17’ and 72’) and Abbondanzieri (68’ and 76’) for double yellows and also booked Cata Díaz (34’), Cortés (41’), De la Red (60’), Kepa (91’) and Manu del Moral (93’).

Incidents: Vicente Calderón Stadium. Match corresponding to Matchday 15 of La Liga. A minute of silence was held in memory of Raúl Centeno and Fernando Trapero, the two Spanish Civil Guards assassinated by ETA on 1 December. Sergio Agüero received the Golden Boy award given by Tuttosport befote the start of the match; Máximo Franchi, director of the international section of the Italian daily paper, was in charge of handing out the prize to Kun.

GOALS
1-0 (19’). Forlán scores after making a run from behind and receiving a nice cross from Simao.

Raúl García: “Being at the top raises the team morale and confidence level”


Atletico de Madrid didn’t play a brilliant match, although they did put in hard work, but Raúl García played down that matter and assured that the three points are what was important. “You’re not always going to see an attractive match. We’ll make an assessment at the end of the season and there will have been beautiful matches as well as ugly ones. You have to win matches like this to be at the top. The important thing is the win and we earned it”, stated the Navarran player.

The Atletico midfielder continued to analyze the current play of the team and explained that “we’re up top right now in the table. The important thing is to keep earning points and for the team to remain in the first places. Being in those spots raises the team morale and confidence level”.

For the fourth match in-a-row, Atletico kept a clean sheet. Raül considered that “it’s the work of the whole team. Beforehand, you couldn’t place all of the blame on the defense, although at the end of the match the points are what’s important and it doesn’t matter how many goals you give up”.

To finish, Raúl García analyzed the performance of the referee, Clos Gómez, and stated that “he’s the one who has to make decisions. I imagine that he whistled what he thought was appropriate, although I don’t really want to talk about the job he did”.

Aguirre: “We have to have moderation; we’re in week 15”


The head coach of Atletico de Madrid, Javier Aguirre, appeared happy with the result against Getafe, but especially with his players’ attitude. The Mexican manager stated that “it was a match charged with tension, back-and-forth and without goals. With 11, 10 and 9 players, both teams gave their all on the pitch. From the point when they whistled the penalty and then reversed the call on forward, the match became crazy”.

“It was a match in which plenty of things happened. Everyone, including myself, fell into a routine of craziness and arguments. We forgot about the essential thing, which is to play football”, acknowledged Aguirre.

Speaking about their opponent, the Atletico coach pointed out that “Getafe is the team in the best shape right now. They’re a really good team, they work hard and they have great players. We knew that they weren’t going to be an easy opponent. We were lucky to put away our chance and they didn’t take advantage of theirs”.

Atletico de Madrid strengthened their hold in Champions spots, but Aguirre wants to keep both feet on the ground and remain calm. “We’re going to be patient. We’re in week 15 and there are still 23 tough matches left. We have to keep our calm and be moderate. We’re very excited about the Kings’ Cup and now the Getafe match is part of the past, which means that we have to focus on Granada 74”, he asserted.

“These are three very important points. Sometimes you have to give everything during a match and squeeze everything you can out of yourself; in this case, we got our prize in the end. We know that we beat a grand opponent”, he emphasized.

With regard to the two yellow cards shown to Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero which warranted his sending off, Aguirre stated that “we’ll speak with Clemente Villaverde and after taking a look at the video will decide whether or not to contest them. According to what the kid says, it seems like there was contact on the first play and on the second they knocked into him as h jumped. We’ll see what happens; anyway, if he doesn’t play one of his teammates will. I have a large roster and we have to look forward”.

“All of us on this team are professionals and we have tobe ready to take criticism. We respect the work of professional journalists and also the opinion of the public. It’s really hard for everyone to be in agreement in the world of football”, he concluded by saying.

Laudrup: “Despite the loss, I’m happy with my players’ attitude”


The manager of Getafe, Michael Laudrup, stated after the match that “it was a difficult match. I’m very happy with my players’ attitude. When you lose a match like that, there’s nothing you can say to them. My footballers worked hard against a team that’s in Champions spots. In the final minutes, they closed down in back and were asking the referee to blow the whistle”.

“Apart from the goal, Atletico de Madrid had one post and I think that that was there only other chance. We had several chances with which we could have levelled, such as the ones from Albín and Kepa”, he pointed out.

With regard to the callousness of the match and the amount of cards shown by the referee, Clos Gómez, Laudrup was clear and stated that “I didn’t see any ugly tackles. People who didn’t see the match might think that the play was rough, but it was obvious that neither of the teams were trying to cause harm”.

“Atletico de Madrid went for the match, but they came up against a Getafe side that wanted to play and that wanted to have the ball. We also tried to win the match, but in the end we were unable to”, he concluded by saying.

spain is ridicolous!
I mean, i like kun and i'm happy when he plays, but this is simply unbelievable. It was a dive and the was well deserved so why was it rescinded now?