Valencia quickly found their rhythm and troubled David Soria greatly, though they failed to beat him, despite nearly being giftwrapped an opener.
A defensive calamity from Getafe allowed the ball to drop to Samuel Lino in acres of space on the penalty spot, but his first-time strike on the half-volley was straight at Soria.
The chance was then reworked just moments later, and Lino’s second crack at goal looked destined for the top left corner. However, his effort was instead beaten away by a fantastic diving save, giving Getafe another reprieve.
Los Che’s faltering in front of goal allowed the hosts to regain their composure, before making their own push to break the deadlock in the opening half’s final moments.
Domingos Duarte should have done just that from six yards out when latching onto Portu’s perfectly-placed corner, but as well as beating his marker, his header would beat the post. Munir El Haddadi would go one better and put his later headed attempt on target, only to see it saved by Giorgi Mamardashvili.
The match was crying out for one piece of quality, and a sense of déjà vu arose in the second half as it appeared that moment had arrived.
Once more, Los Azulones were painfully slow to react from the restart, and again the ball broke to a white shirt with space and time in the box.
On this occasion it was Valencia’s number nine Justin Kluivert on the receiving end, but as he struck the ball, the travelling support may have been wishing it was his father Patrick taking the shot on instead, with the forward firing his effort straight down the throat of Soria.
This miss would come back to haunt the visitors, as Borja Mayoral bundled the ball across the line with eight minutes remaining, after Omar Alderete headed a corner back across goal and left Mamardashvili stranded.
Getafe managed to hold on, albeit after a tight offside decision prevented Fran Pérez from equalising, to not only claim their first victory of the calendar year, but leapfrog their opponents out of the bottom three and into 16th.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Borja Mayoral (Getafe)
