Another match, another calm win for FC Barcelona. The inevitable Lionel Messi, David Villa and Pedro scored one each as Barcelona won 3-1 at Getafe.
The first half was entirely dominated by Barcelona, who had an impressive 76% ball possession at the break. Lots of chances were created and missed until the 22th minute, where Messi opened the score with a superb finish. 12 minutes later, the best player of this generation assisted David Villa who easily netted the second goal (after wasting some chances before). At half-time, Barcelona won 2-0 and could have scored a lot more goals; Victor Valdés was a mere spectator.
The beginning of the second half was more of the same: Barcelona calmly passed the ball around and chances came quite naturally.
In the 65th minute, Getafe did themselves no favours when Cata Diaz saw his pass hit Messi as the Argentinian genius closed him down and the ball fell to Pedro, who finished in style to put Barcelona three ahead.
It seemed like a perfect night for the blaugrana, but in the 69th minute Piqué needlessly deflected a low cross with his arm, got sent off and Getafe scored from the penalty spot. As a consequence, Piqué will be out for next week's match against Villareal, who are currently tied with Barcelona in second place.
Even with 10, Barcelona kept creating chances; Lionel Messi was unusually wasteful today and could have scored the fourth on some occasions. Getafe also had some chances but Barcelona's victory was never in jeapordy.
Another calm win for Guardiola's Dream Team, who, due to their poor home form at the beginning of the season, is still in second place, one point behind leaders Real Madrid, who had little trouble beating Atletico Madrid 2-0 at the Bernabeu.
Next week, Barcelona will host Villareal, who currently share the second place with the blaugrana, while Real Madrid will travel to Sporting Gijon. The challenge for Barcelona is the same as it was this week: beating Villareal and take advantage of a possible Real Madrid slip-up in order to reach the top spot in the standings before the Classico.
Before that, though, there's a Copa del Rey match on Wednesday against Ceuta. After winning 2-0 at Ceuta, Barcelona should have no problems advancing to next round in this competition.