After a rather disappointing, but by no means compromising draw at Copenhagen on Tuesday for the Champions League, Barcelona face another difficult test in La Liga at Getafe.
So far, Barcelona have won all their four away matches (it's their best away start ever), and a fifth straight away win is expected and mandatory on Sunday. Due to Barcelona's poor home form at the beginning of the season, Real Madrid are in first place in the league, one point ahead of Barcelona, a situation which the blaugrana want to solve as soon as possible. This weekend, Los Blancos will face their first real test in this year's league when they host Atletico Madrid. The only way Barcelona can take advantage of a possible slip-up is by beating Getafe.
On Thursday, Getafe hosted Stuttgart in a Europa League fixture and the Germans demolished Getafe 3-0, which could suggest that this will be an easy match for Barcelona. That idea, however, couldn't be any further away from the truth. Getafe have been solid so far in the league and they're always a difficult team in their stadium.
Sure, Barcelona are huge favorites, but they'll need to play their best football to get a win. Any complacency from Guardiola's Dream Team will certainly be punished.
With the Classico approaching, Barcelona can't afford to drop any more points. Only by playing their best in every match can Barcelona aspire to three-peat. In a league where the top teams lose so few points, any slip-up becomes compromising.
The Getafe match will be difficult, but so was the Sevilla match and Barcelona made it easy with a fabulous performance. The same is expected on Sunday.
By the way, does anyone bet against Messi getting on the scoresheet? The best player of the generation already has 15 goals in 13 matches this season and 100 goals in the past 117 matches, and he's steadily hitting top form, much to the pleasure of the Barcelona fans.