Six points behind Barcelona at the start of play, and dumped out of the Copa del Rey because of an administrative error, the Spanish press reported the win as a painkiller for Benitez.
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Barcelona were upended by Valencia, who equalised in the 86th minute.
With 14 matches played, Barca lead on 34 points, two ahead of Atletico, with Real a further two points adrift in third. Valencia are seventh on 20 points and Sevilla 10th on 19.
Real needed a strong showing against city rivals Getafe after a troubled week when they were thrown out of the King’s Cup for fielding an ineligible player.
First goal: Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, right, celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal against Getafe during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Getafe at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Saturday. Many club supporters also repeated calls for the resignation of president Florentino Perez.
“He is improving and what we want is to protect a player who first got injured and then did so again”.
The 27-year-old is under investigation by French authorities over an apparent attempt to extort money from his France team mate Mathieu Valbuena with a sex video. The diversion denoted the first run through this season Benzema, Bale and Ronaldo, on the whole known as “BBC”, have scored in the same La Liga amusement.
Getafe grew in confidence through enjoying a greater share of possession and they pulled one back in the 70th minute when Alexis towered over Pepe to power a header home, prompting whistles from the crowd. “I said the other day the team is in much better shape than people think and we showed that in the first-half”.
‘The team controlled the game. “At 4-0 up we dropped the intensity a bit as the work was done”, he said.
Suarez finally found the net when he raced onto a Lionel Messi pass and cracked the ball past goalkeeper Jaume Domenech from a tight angle.
Benitez added: “We spoke about whether he (Benzema) could score two goals against Getafe”.
“Everyone expects us to always be ideal, and sometimes you have to unite to get things done like we did”.
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It was a morale-boosting success for Valencia ahead of their Champions League game at home to Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday, Neville’s first game in charge, when they must win to keep alive their chances of advancing to the last 16.
