Real Madrid lose further ground on Barcelona in La Liga after defeat to Getafe

Defending La Liga champions Real Madrid have made their worst start to the season for 39 years after they lost 2-1 to Getafe on Sunday.

The defeat left them winless from their first two games in the Spanish league and they sit five points adrift of rivals Barcelona, who came from behind to beat Osasuna.

Madrid led after 27 minutes in their contest at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez through Gonzalo Higuain but Getafe came back in the second half with goals from Juan Valera and Abdelaziz Barrada to cause the first major shock of the season.

It’s the third game in a row Madrid have failed to win, having drawn their opening match against Valencia 1-1 and losing the first leg of the Super Cup 3-2 to Barcelona.

The defending champions now face an uphill struggle to keep pace with their Catalan rivals and coach Jose Mourinho has called the gap "too many points."

"We deserved to lose," Mourinho said. "We played very badly. An unacceptable game. It's one of those games which I leave without feeling frustrated because the result wasn't a surprise in the end."
    21 Aug 2012

To make matters worse for Mourinho, Madrid saw Fabio Coentrao red carded from the substitute’s bench for berating the referee.

"We have to admit that this is an unexpected setback," Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso said. "We need to change things quickly, we have to improve our play."

While Madrid struggled to get their usually fluent passing game together, their rivals Barcelona stormed back from a goal down to claim their second successive win, again thanks to the brilliance of Lionel Messi.

Osasuna beat Barcelona last season at home and started the better when Joseba Llorente met Roland Lamah's cross to stab the ball past Victor Valdes.

The home side’s striker Juan Francisco Martinez failed to extend the lead 25 minutes into the second half after striking the ball against the post.

But with Xavi Hernandez replacing Andres Iniesta and Pedro Rodriguez on for Cesc Fabregas, Barcelona soon found their way. Messi struck his third of the season guiding Alexis Sanchez's short pass beyond goalkeeper Andres Fernandez to equalise in the 76th minute.

Osasuna then went down to 10 men when Francisco Punal was red carded for arguing the goal was offside.

Messi then scored his fourth of the season to wrap up the win as he latched on to a Jordi Alba's cross in the 80th minute.

"The season has just started and we've got a lot of players we can trust. We make the teams thinking about what we have and what we still have to come," Vilanova said of his line-up changes.

"We didn't play very well, we conceded a lot of chances to our rival. But you have to be mentally strong to win these types of games."