Not many pundits, journalists and fans could have expected to see Getafe in 5th place in Spain’s La Liga in the middle of April with just 6 games left to play, but that is how this season has transpired.
Getafe are aiming of course for a Champions League finish and Sevilla are the only club that currently stand in their way. Forget about the top 3- Barcelona are 23 points in front, Atletico Madrid are 14 points and Real Madrid have 9 points more. But Sevilla are just one point to the advantage of the club.
Directly below Getafe the fight is not finished to overtake them and they may have to fend off threats from Valencia and to a lesser extent Athletico Bilbao who are currently 5 points off of Getafe’s blistering pace.
With 13 games won so far this season and a plus goal difference of 11 the club have taken everyone by storm, but just how has this improvement happened this season?
The club had a big summer clear out last summer and brought in over 20 players, most of these were loans and loan backs and they actually spent just over 20m euros in the window. Vitorino Antunes for 2.5m euros arrived from Dynamo Kiev and Mauro Arambarri from Argentinian side Boston River for 2m euros. Ivan Alejo from Eibar came for 4m euros and the teams biggest expenditure was on Valencia’s Nemanja Maksimovic for 5m euros.
And it has been interesting. Antunes has impressed in defence and has picked up 49 points so far this season in Ligue 1 Fantasy football, he is the 3rd best performing player for Getafe. In first place for the club is David Soria, the 26 year old goalkeeper also joined the club from Sevilla last summer.
Goals have come from Angel Luis Rodriguez Diaz, simply known as Angel, which makes buying a shirt with his name on the back more cost effective. The Spaniard has scored 12 goals this season and is the clubs leading goal scorer, but he has also assisted a further 7 times, this is his 2nd season with the club and from 57 games he has 18 in total. But this has been far his most impressive season after his switch from Real Zaragoza.
A lot of the credit has to go to coach Jose Bordalas who at 55 and mostly coaching 2nd and 3rd tier clubs got his break in 2016 when he was appointed head coach from Alaves after he had guided the club to the Segunda Division title.
Last season Getafe finished 8th with 55 points, that points total will surely be passed this season and the club have properly progressed in the last couple of seasons. What has helped is that goals have been spread over 3 different players. The aforementioned Angel, but also Jorge Molina has weighed in with 9 goals and Sebastian Cristoforo even in a midfield role has 10. It means that Getafe for the first time in years are not reliant on just one player.
The club continue to play the game within their means, and if that means Champions League qualification in the process then their success will not just be on the pitch but in their accounts too.
For now Getafe look good for at least the Europa League and they will be hoping to continue their great level and their capacity to shock the bigger teams as the league’s end draws in.
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