BARCELONA — Ferran Torres struck twice for champions Barcelona as they beat Getafe 3-0 yesterday to stay on Real Madrid’s tails at the top of La Liga.
Dani Olmo was also on target for the Catalans, who trail leaders Madrid by two points after Xabi Alonso’s side beat Espanyol on Saturday to maintain their 100 per cent record.
Atletico Madrid’s stuttering start to the season continued in a 1-1 draw at Mallorca, in which their striker Julian Alvarez missed a penalty.
Playing at the 6,000 capacity Johan Cruyff stadium besides their training ground again as the club waits for the necessary licences to reopen their renovated Camp Nou home, Barcelona dominated an unambitious Getafe team.
Despite his brace against Newcastle in the Champions League, German coach Hansi Flick left Marcus Rashford on the bench, with Spanish media reporting that it was because the England international was late for a morning meeting.
Flick has dropped other players from the line-up for the same offence in the past, including defender Jules Kounde.
“(Rotation) is normal because every three or four days we have a match, we need fresh legs on the pitch,” said Flick, when asked why Rashford did not start.
Rashford’s replacement as the stand-in for injured teenage superstar Lamine Yamal, Torres, took his chance with both hands.
“We have a lot of matches so it’s really good to have everyone on this (level of) performance,” added Flick.
The Spaniard opened the scoring with a powerful finish at the end of a slick move, with Olmo backheeling the ball into his path in the box.
Torres’s second finish was even better, guided into the bottom left corner from outside the box after Raphinha sent him through on goal.
The forward crashed a shot off the bar as a first half hat-trick beckoned.
Several Barca players lost their temper before the break as Getafe put in several hard and late tackles, with Kounde the victim of many of them.
Flick sent on Rashford for Raphinha at half-time, perhaps in order to save the Brazilian from a potential red card.
“A lot of the time, they don’t try to do anything apart from too many fouls, in my opinion, but we managed it well,” Torres told DAZN.
“I said to the team: we have to focus on our match, not on their match,” said Flick.
Rashford created Barcelona’s third, zipping inside from the right flank and unselfishly cutting the ball back for Olmo to finish, and had two efforts of his own saved by Getafe goalkeeper David Soria.
The only bad news for Barca was substitute Fermin Lopez appearing to pull up hurt in stoppage time.
