Barcelona who are the Spanish La Liga defending champions opened their 2023/24 La Liga season on a sad note as they played out a goalless draw with a red card given to one of their finest players. The game was the La Liga debut for former Manchester City captain Ilkay Gundogan. The German, 32, joined the Spanish giants in the summer.
He appeared to have a golden chance to mark his debut with a goal inside the first couple of minutes, but he was flagged offside after firing straight at the goalkeeper. Former Leeds United stat who now plays for Barcelona Raphinha had a red card in the first half of the game before manager Xavi was also sent off in the second half of the game.
The former Leeds forward Raphinha had earlier gone close to opening the scoring when he controlled a deep cross before his curled effort inside the box was kept out by Getafe goalkeeper David Soria. This happened before he was sent for elbowing Getafe’s Gaston Alvarez.
Xavi, meanwhile, was dismissed late in the second half for arguing against a decision by the referee after Abde Ezzalzouli appeared to have been fouled. Getafe were also reduced to 10 men soon after the break when Jaime Mata was shown a second yellow card for a foul.
Robert Lewandowski had a header cleared off the line in the second half, while Barcelona thought they might be awarded a late penalty after the referee went to check the monitor for potential fouls on Gavi and Ronald Araujo, but nothing was given.