Getafe is one of the most hated teams in world football, especially in Spain. From the chaos of anti-football claims to the sheer number of red cards, this could be a tough game for the Albion this week. 

Let's take a deeper dive into the Spanish football club... 

Who Is José Bordalás?

José Bordalás is one of the most recognisable names in Spanish football, well known as a villain in the eyes of tactical purists everywhere.

He’s managed Getafe in two separate spells, between 2016 and 2021 and from 2023 onwards. He took a small club with limited resources and little success and turned it into a team that consistently challenges the establishment.

That story doesn’t sound too dissimilar to our own in recent years. Still, Getafe’s rise under Bordalás has been the antithesis of the attacking, free-flowing football Brighton have seen from Potter, De Zerbi and Hürzeler.

His style is very much no-frills football. His sides play a flat 4-4-2, minimise shots on target, never indulge in showboating, and favour playing it long and contesting second balls over a complex passing system. In layman’s terms: sacrifice the aesthetic pleasure of football to grind out results.

It should come as no surprise that the Wikipedia page for “anti-football” has his portrait as its main image.

Getafe’s Successes

Bordalás’ dark arts may be painful to watch for the neutral, but they’ve brought outstanding success. Getafe consistently spend less than €20m every summer and has a wage bill nearly nine and a half times lower than Real Madrid’s, which tops the rankings.

Yet they consistently punch above their weight, finishing as high as fifth in 2018/19, and they’re now in their second European campaign under Bordalás.

Getafe know their style is contrived and negative, but they know just as well that it works, and if it draws criticism from the football world, so be it. Bordalás has the third-highest win tally in Spain’s top three divisions to show for it.

The Challenge for Brighton

They could pose a real threat to Brighton.

The Jablonec game showed how we can struggle away in this competition, and it’s no secret how much The Seagulls struggle against defensive, low-block sides.

However, Getafe’s Conference League start has been shaky: a 1-1 draw with Universitatea Craiova, Brighton’s next European opponent, and a 5-2 home thumping by Swiss side Lugano. That makes them nigh impossible to predict, and their unpredictable, defensive nature could be an issue for Brighton in the Spanish capital tonight.