Getafe scored after two minutes at the Coliseum and still lost by three. Albian Ajeti struck twice in a ruthless first half as FC Lugano won 5-2 in Spain on Thursday night, producing one of the great away performances of this Conference League season.
Iván Azón gave the hosts the perfect start, firing Getafe in front inside two minutes, but the lead lasted barely sixty seconds. What followed was a collapse that José Bordalás, a coach who has built his reputation on defensive organisation, will struggle to explain: three Lugano goals in twenty-three minutes, a quadruple half-time substitution, and a Swiss side that scored five times from just eight shots.
Three goals in twenty-three minutes turn the night upside down
Lugano's response to falling behind was instant. Albian Ajeti levelled in the 3rd minute from Daniel Dos Santos's pass, and by the 7th minute the visitors were in front, Yanis Cimignani finishing from Ajeti's assist. The former Celtic striker then made it 3-1 in the 26th minute, converting Dereck Moncada's ball, and Getafe never recovered their shape or their composure.
The numbers underline how strange the night was. The match record kept by El Botola shows Getafe finished with 57 per cent possession, 22 shots and 12 corners — and lost 5-2. Lugano needed only eight attempts to score five goals, a lesson in clinical finishing that the hosts, for all their pressure, never came close to matching.
Four half-time changes cannot stop the bleeding
Bordalás reacted at the break with four substitutions at once — Martín Satriano, Johan Mojica, Ramón Terrats and Nemanja Gudelj all came on — but the gamble changed nothing. Five minutes after the restart, Uran Bislimi made it 4-1 from Mattia Zanotti's assist, and the Coliseum fell silent.
Borja Mayoral pulled one back in the 74th minute to give the home crowd brief hope, but Lugano had the final word. Kevin Behrens, who had replaced the exhausted Ajeti midway through the second half, added the fifth in the second minute of stoppage time to complete a scoreline few in European football saw coming. The full-time record on Sports Mole confirms a 5-2 away win that will be talked about in Ticino for years.
What it means for Getafe and Lugano
Lugano move onto six points from two games and sit among the early pacesetters in the league phase — only Panathinaikos, 5-1 winners at Kairat Almaty, produced an away display to rival this one on matchday two. On a night when Brighton were being held to a goalless draw in Jablonec, Lugano showed what a fearless away performance looks like.
For Getafe, one point from two games leaves them with almost no margin for error in their remaining league-phase fixtures. Bordalás sides simply do not concede five goals at home, and the manner of the collapse — a lead surrendered within a minute, then wave after wave of Lugano counters — raises questions that go beyond one bad night. Ajeti, a September signing written off more than once in his career, now has a European brace to headline Lugano's campaign.
Beyond the Final Whistle: this was no smash-and-grab. Lugano were braver, sharper and ruthlessly clinical, and Ajeti's first-half brace deserves to be remembered as one of the Conference League's great individual away performances. Getafe's season will not be defined by one night, but Bordalás has to rebuild a defence that suddenly looks fragile. Was this a one-off freak result, or are Lugano genuine dark horses to win the Conference League? Let us know in the comments.
