Match Reports

Albion defeated by Getafe

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Graham Potter's men beaten in final pre-season game.

By Charlie Hanson • 07 August 2021

By Paul Hazlewood
Enock Mwepu played in front of an Amex crowd for the first time.

Albion rounded off their pre-season programme with a 2-0 defeat to La Liga outfit Getafe at the Amex.

A goal either side of half-time was enough to secure victory for the visitors, while an inspired goalkeeping display by David Soria at the other end kept Albion off the scoresheet.

There were first pre-season run outs for Adam Webster, Lewis Dunk and Leandro Trossard, as Graham Potter used 21 players a week ahead of the first Premier League game of the new season at Burnley.

The visitors took the lead in impressive fashion midway through the first half, when Erick Cabaco headed into the bottom right corner from 12 yards following a Getafe free-kick out wide.

By Paul Hazlewood
Albion skipper Lewis Dunk made his first appearance of pre-season.

Pascal Gross came close to an instant reply for Albion, firing a free-kick from the edge of the box straight into Soria's arms.

Getafe coach and former Spain international Michel would have been pleased with his side’s performance and they nearly got a second when Damian Suarez’s thunderbolt from 30 yards flew narrowly wide of the top left corner three minutes before the half-time whistle.

The introduction of Trossard at the break nearly had an immediate impact as the Belgium international sat a Getafe defender down before picking out Joel Veltman on the other side of the box in the 52nd minute. The wing-back saw his cross blocked but followed it up with a stinging effort that Soria did well to palm away, before he pulled off an instinctive diving save to keep out Aaron Connolly's flick.

The momentum had shifted Albion’s way and as the hour mark approached they had their best chance of the game. Having been upended on the far side of the Getafe box, Gross picked out Webster from the resulting free-kick and the defender thundered a header against the underside of the bar, with Dunk’s follow up blocked.

By Paul Hazlewood
The attendance on the night was 7091.

Trossard was in the thick of the action and, having initially lost the ball, he regained it and bent an effort towards the top right corner from just inside the box, but Soria was intent on keeping his clean sheet and he got fingertips on the effort at full stretch.

It was very much against the run of play when Getafe scored again midway through the second half. Enes Unal's low effort was saved expertly by Sanchez, but the keeper could do nothing about a free-kick in the visitors’ favour moments later when David Timor found the bottom right corner from 20 yards.

A disappointing result but there were plenty of positives for Potter, not least the noise and encouragement generated by a crowd of 7091.

Albion: Sanchez, Veltman (sub: Ostigard 89), Dunk (Moder 79), Webster (Duffy 79), Gross (Richards 79), Bissouma (Andone 89), Lallana (Alzate 67), March (Karbownik 89), Mwepu (Zeqiri 89), Mac Allister (Trossard 46), Connolly (Maupay 67).