Eder Militao’s early header gave Real Madrid a gritty 1-0 win at Getafe on Saturday to to move them back up to the top of the LaLiga standings.
Real moved on to 22 points, three ahead of rivals Barcelona who have a game in hand and will host Celta Vigo on Sunday. Madrid’s win also sets up another high-stakes Clasico with Barca visiting next Sunday (10:15 am ET on ESPN+).
Getafe have lost two straight games and are 16th on seven points, two above the relegation zone.
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Rapid Reaction
1. Madrid do enough in pre-Clasico test
Madrid’s 1-1 draw with Osasuna last Sunday — the first time they had dropped points in a hitherto flawless start to the season — meant a win against Getafe at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez was needed to get the team back on track ahead of next week’s Clasico with Barcelona. Anything less could spark premature talk of a crisis.
Eder Militao’s early goal helped calm any nerves, and while Getafe had one or two chances to level it was always Madrid, with Vinicius Junior‘s overturned penalty and Rodrygo’s offside goal, who looked the more likely to score again.
Getafe have been awkward opponents for Madrid lately — Carlo Ancelotti’s team were beaten 1-0 here in January and held to a goalless draw in 2021 — and while Quique Sanchez Flores’ team had a slow start to the season, they’ve improved considerably in the last month, winning back-to-back games before the international break.
Madrid did well here to move the ball quickly, creating spaces in Getafe’s five-man defence, while dealing with the counter-attacking threat of Borja Mayoral and Enes Unal. A narrow 1-0 win was enough to put Madrid back on top of the table, with the pressure on Barca not to slip up in their game with Celta Vigo on Sunday, and all to play for in the Clasico next week.
2. Militao’s goal the prelude to an outstanding display
Lucas Vazquez, David Alaba, Karim Benzema, Luka Modric, Vinicius, Federico Valverde, Rodrygo, Antonio Rudiger, and now Militao. The Brazilian’s match-winning, third-minute header made it nine different players who have scored for Real Madrid in LaLiga so far this season, with just eight games played. For a team that is supposed to be over-reliant on Benzema, that’s a lot of goalscoring variety.
Here, Militao’s quick, intelligent movement saw him lose his marker and Modric’s delivery from the corner did the rest. The arrival of Rudiger in the summer saw Militao’s position in the team come under threat. Games like this, though, show why Ancelotti has been so keen to keep the faith in last year’s partnership of him and Alaba.
And it wasn’t just the goal. This was the kind of performance from Militao that makes him look like the complete defender: as quick as any centre-back around, stronger than most, and more than comfortable to play the ball out from the back.
Of course, the issue with Militao is that this isn’t always the case. He lacks consistency and concentration, meaning a sudden, clamorous error can never be entirely ruled out. But he’s still just 24, with his best years as a centre-back yet to come, and plenty of time to improve in that department.
