With Atleti’s strong run of form, including three straight LaLiga victories, the Rojiblancos wasted little time in their plot for a fourth.
In the eighth minute, Getafe failed to clear their lines, and the ball deflected into the path of Nahuel Molina, who fired a rocket into the top-right corner from 25 yards out to send the Metropolitano faithful into raptures.
A man possessed, Molina could even have produced a similarly sumptuous strike 15 minutes later, seeing a low drive from distance at the end of a botched clearance from a corner only kept out by the quick thinking of David Soria, who dived low to his left to deny him a first senior club-level brace.
There was precious little sign of any attacking endeavour from Getafe in response to falling behind, and with their hopes of a first away win in this fixture since May 2010 already looking very remote, Alexander Sorloth nearly doubled Atleti’s lead.
The Norwegian sparked the opportunity himself, playing a one-two with Thiago Almada through the Getafe lines, allowing the Argentine to cross to the far post, only for Sorloth to head into the side netting.
The second half was still in its fledgling stages when proceedings took a surreal turn, with an off-the-ball spat between Abdel Abqar and Sorloth resulting in the latter roughly throwing the Moroccan to the floor.
A VAR review revealed Abqar to be the perpetrator, though, as he was seen to visibly squeeze Sorloth in a very provocative part of his body. In turn, Abqar was sent off, and Sorloth escaped with only a yellow card.
But despite being down to 10 men, Getafe nearly channelled their anger in the best way possible, with Luis Vazquez just narrowly heading wide at the end of a Juan Iglesias cross.
Although Alex Baena then fired narrowly off target down at the other end, Getafe continued to up their efforts and nearly equalised 20 minutes from time.
After his earlier heroics, Molina almost turned villain, as he failed to intercept a deadly through ball from Vazquez to Mauro Arambarri, but with only the committed Juan Musso to beat, he inexplicably fired over the bar.
Musso had to be alert again not long after that, when thwarting a shot from Luis Milla, but Atleti still had plenty left in the tank, and nearly wrapped up the points on 82’. With a combination of a Soria save, a Mario Martin tackle, and a goalline block from Domingos Duarte preventing Sorloth’s replacement, Julian Alvarez, from netting.
With a man advantage, Atleti were able to revert to a less intensive game and pass around Getafe’s tiring players up to the final whistle, though there was still time for Musso to palm out a point-blank Adrian Liso header in the sixth minute of nine added on.
Although Atleti undeniably rode their luck at times in the second half, it will still take a near-unthinkable disaster for the Rojiblancos to finish outside the top four.
Diego Simeone’s men have still lost just one home league game this term (W13, D1), while Getafe - who saw their unbeaten LaLiga away streak ended at four matches - can but hope for a favour from Betis against Celta Vigo tomorrow, as a victory for the latter would put Jose Bordalas’ European hopefuls eight points adrift of the top six.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid)
