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Written by Martin Graham | May 16 2022
Barcelona drew 0-0 away from Getafe to officially achieve second place in La Liga.
The Catalan club started the season in uncharacteristic fashion and by November the club was in ninth place. There was a lot of noise surrounding the club, with talks of budget cuts and wage cuts hanging over players’ heads at the time.
However, Dutchman Ronald Koeman was unable to make the most of the situation and the club performed poorly in the league and in the Champions League. Newly elected president Joan Laporta Coman sacked in November despite backing him for most of the season, and within three weeks, Xavi Hernandez was brought in from Al Sadd club to the Qatar Stars League.
The former Barcelona midfielder faced the daunting task of reviving his old club and making him challenge the league again or even upset the balance and win it. Laporta also backed the new manager with some smart work in the winter transfer window, offering two free transfers of high quality along with a big-money signing and a loan signing.
Xavi has now made lemonade from the lemons he was given on time and upended the fortunes of a club whose future looked bleak. They have now improved their third place since last season as they will officially finish as runners-up for the 2021/22 LaLiga Santander season.
Match report: Getafe 0 – 0 Barcelona
The match was quite boring, with both teams choosing to play it safe. Xavi has chosen a frequently changing team, with only Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Sergio Busquets, Dani Alves and Ferran Torres keeping their place in the squad as a start from the last few matches.
There was no intensity in the two teams’ forays into the opponent’s territory as both realized that a point would help in achieving their goals.
However, Getafe looked like they broke the deadlock and were very calm in defense too, but Barcelona didn’t do much in attack either.
The second half was much the same but Barcelona will be concerned as Memphis Depay, who has been unlucky with injuries this season, had to take off after colliding with former Barcelona midfielder Carles Alena.
Barcelona has now booked a spot in the Supercopa De Espana next season and will face Real Madrid in the first semi-final. The winner will face either Valencia or Real Betis Balompie in the cup final in January 2023.
