Barcelona head coach Pep Guardiola has taken Saturday's loss at Getafe in stride, insisting the result is not a significant blow to their title defense despite leaving La Liga's champions six points behind league-leading Real Madrid.
Speaking after this side's 1-0 loss in Madrid, Guardiola told news agency EFE, "(The loss) is not terrible. There's still a long way to go in league. We must recover from this setback … Now we play Rayo (Vallecano), then Levante, and after that Real Madrid."
Barcelona had been undefeated in all competitions coming into the match but were sent crashing after defender Juan Valera headed Getafe in front in the 67th minute. Combined with Real Madrid's 4-1 victory over Atletico Madrid earlier on Saturday, Barcelona is two full games behind their arch rivals, who top the league on 38 points after 13 rounds.
Asked about the performance of referee Teixeira Vitienes, who called 16 fouls on Getafe (five on Barcelona), Guardiola said "The referees go not exist to serve us" while praising his opponent.
"Today we had a good game against a good team. They were well prepared, have very good players."
"We have to congratulate our opponents and move on."
Barcelona was playing without start Carles Puyol and Andres Iniesta.
The veteran defender Puyol was left out of the team after playing mid-week at AC Milan in Champions League.
Iniesta continues to recover from a leg injury.
