In Greater Madrid — Getafe C.F.
I’d originally booked the last flight out of Dublin to Madrid on Saturday with a view to watching Real Madrid play Elche on the Sunday. That game was moved to the following Wednesday due to Real playing in the Club World Cup. An oversight on my part but there you go.
That left me with a dilemma. As Spanish matches are only scheduled at the last minute, I frantically looked through all the games that weekend. How long does it take to get from Madrid to Barcelona or Valencia? No, where’s Getafe? That’ll do.
After a little more research, I found Getafe were playing in a Madrid derby that weekend, against Rayo Vallecano. Sounds good. I’ll not lie here, I knew absolutely nothing about the two sides, not even where they were in the table. I think Roberto Soldado played for Getafe for a while.
Game day arrived and we headed for Atocha, Madrid’s main train station, and got a return ticket out to Getafe. Twenty minutes later we were in the suburb of Getafe. We got off at the University stop, off the train and meandered to the ground through rows and rows of identical houses. We arrived at the stadium and the buzz hit. We were about two hours early and there weren’t many about yet. We chilled out a street over from the ground and had a few Mahous to kill some time, and did a bit more research on who we were watching. I recognised Etes Unal from his Leicester days and Carles Alena from a Football Manager save. That was it.
Regardless, we headed to the stadium and purchased our tickets (sixty Euros) and made our way to the pitch. A gleaming ground in the late Winter Madrid sun. Only built in 1998, the Stadio Alfonso Perez was clean and tidy, holding around 18,000.
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The first half passed without much incident, apart from a Rayo Vallecano goal from a poorly-defended corner. We then moved from our seat in the corner of the ground to the concourse between the two sets of seats in the main stand — a better view from the centre of the pitch.
The second half was a fantastic spectacle. My FM hero Alena was sent off about ten minutes in for a second yellow card. Borja Mayoral, once of Real Madrid, blazed a penalty over the bar. Unal, who had been very poor all game, closed down Rayo’s North Macedonian goalkeeper and deflected a long clearance into the net — 1–1. Rayo then went up the other end and got a penatly of their own with five minutes to go. De Tomas missed the spot kick with a great save from Getafe’s keeper. 1–1 and the blues held on for a vital point in their fight against relegation.
The second half made the game. Brilliant end-to-end action which made the trip worth it. Lovely ground and glad to have ticked it off.
Overall rating — 7/10.
On a side note, we headed to the Bernabeu the next day for the tour. We knew there was work going on but expected more. Into a makeshift trophy room, a walk past the pitch on one of the middle tiers and ushered into the club shop. Sparks from work going on above dropping on people’s heads for added spice. Would not recommend.
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