- Barcelona and Ronald Koeman suffered their first defeat of the season
- Jaime Mata condemned them to their first defeat under Koeman with a penalty
- Mental Health and Psychosocial considerations during the COVID-19
Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona project hit its first bump in the road with a 1-0 defeat to Getafe.
Having watched Real Madrid fall flat against Cadiz they wasted their chance to draw level with them in La Liga and there will once again be more questions than answers about their prospects this season.
They dominated the first half but a Lionel Messi shot came back off the post and Antoine Griezmann blazed over when put through by the impressive Pedri.
Those misses allowed Getafe to stay in the game and when Frenkie de Jong was adjudged to have fouled Djene in the area Jaime Mata stepped up to send Neto the wrong way.
Speaking after the match, Koeman moaned on the lack of VAR use:
‘I don’t know if we had VAR at the game tonight,’
And it was true Allan Nyom might have been sent off for a first-half elbow on Messi that was punished only with a free-kick, but Getafe worked hard for the three points and their first win at home to Barcelona since 2011.
Koeman shuffled his pack pre-game bringing in 17-year-old Pedri for Philippe Coutinho and starting with Ousmane Dembele instead of Ansu Fati.
Having won their first two games of the season Barcelona has now taken one point from six and Real Madrid is on the horizon. The only consolation is that Madrid on the night was also beaten and looked in even worse form.
