If there is a team that brings the Getafethat is none other than Atlético de Madrid, who has not scored a goal for eight years. Until last year, one of its pillars, Diego GodinIt was a wall that the men believed to have gotten rid of. José Bordalás, who will now meet again with the Uruguayan defender in the clash they will play against Inter.
It is not Lautaro Martínez, Romelo Lukaku, Christian Eriksen or Alexis Sánchez, figures that can do more damage to Getafe in an atypical closed-door duel without an audience and a single game to decide the name of the team that will be in the Europa League quarterfinals. Godín is something else in Getafe. He is the player who carries a curse that he casts every time he faces the blue square.
The data is terrible for the team Bordalás: with Simeone on the bench for Atlético de Madrid, Godin he ruled the red and white defense to keep his goal at zero at all times. The pair Simeone-Godín He left Getafe scoreless over 11 league and one cup duels between 2012 and 2019. Only in 2011 with Gregorio Manzano on the bench and in his time at Villarreal, the Uruguayan defender knew what it was like to concede goals from Getafe. He suffered them up to eleven times.
But almost a decade has passed since Godín does not approach the network of one of his goals to pick up a ball thrown inside by a footballer of his next rival. And there is respect for his figure in the group that governs José Bordalás. They say Jaime Mata, one of the managers of marking Inter, and Xabier Etxeita, a central defender who has sometimes looked at himself in the Uruguayan's mirror.
“He is one of the best defenders and that is why he has achieved what he has achieved. It continues to grow on a personal level. That is what makes him special and a very important player. We all know that Inter's defense is very complicated, ”he tells EFE. Jaime Mata.
“He is a great center back. I have been fortunate to follow him a lot in the Spanish League, I have faced him and he is one of the best central defenders in the League in recent years. Even from the world. Very complete and has shown it. It is true that it has been one of the centrals in which I have paid a lot of attention ”, adds Etxeita.
Now, unlike his time at Atlético, Godin he has adapted perfectly to a defense with three centrals in which he usually plays alongside the Dutch Stefan de Vrij and the slovak Milan Skriniar. Other companions also appear in the line-ups, such as Danilo D’Ambrosio and the young man Alessandro Bastoni (21 years old), good providers of oxygen for their peers, who sometimes need to breathe.
Before, with his compatriot José María Giménez or with the Montenegrin Stefan Savic or later in time with the Brazilian Joao Miranda, was an impregnable couple for Getafe. Now with Antonio Conte on the bench, he has been perfectly coupled with a defense with three centrals and two long wings with which the Italian League has finished in a worthy second position just behind Juventus.
At 34 years old, Godín has accumulated the number of 31 official matches throughout the course. In total, it totals 2,349 minutes, the lowest number since he arrived in Europe in the 2007/08 campaign to play for Villarreal. Far are the 4,620 minutes he added in the 51 games he played in the 2013/14 season, his historical record.
Except for a preseason injury that left him without minutes in the premiere of Inter in the League against Lecce, Godín has only been left without playing due to technical decisions by Conte, who has managed the physique of his player throughout the season. Up to 15 times he has left him on the bench and once in the stands. By sanction, he missed a clash, but in important games, it has almost always been indisputable in eleven.
In the last against Atalanta, in which Inter was playing second place, Conte did not hesitate to use the Uruguayan experience to secure the runner-up.
Days after that last Inter victory (0-2), Godín may repeat in the eleven of his team. And more if the Lecce coach reviews the data of the Charrúa against the blue box: 8 years and 12 games in a row without conceding a goal. Without a doubt, Godín is part of the athletic curse that persecutes Getafe. In Germany, far from the Coliseum and the Metropolitan Wanda, he could revive it.