Barcelona’s season began against Rayo Vallecano
Barcelona’s La Liga season began tonight in front of a nearly sold-out Camp Nou against Rayo Vallecano. Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha,
and Andreas Christensen, three recent additions, made their official debuts.
However, the first half was mostly uneventful. There weren’t many opportunities separating the two teams,
excluding some shady refereeing (welcome back, La Liga).
Raphinha and Ousmane Dembele made some outrageous attempts,
and Lewandowski’s presence in the box was almost completely negated.
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Though the second half held considerably greater promise,
Xavi’s team could only manage a draw in the end.
6 Ousmane Dembele
Dembele’s performance tonight was not the best,
much like Raphinha’s. He found it difficult to get around Rayo’s fullback, and none of his passes were successful.
Raphinha and Dembele were unable to locate Lewandowski,
so Rayo did well to keep an almost constant eye on him in the box. In any other league,
the Pole may have been awarded a penalty,
but not with the La Liga officials.
In their opening La Liga match,
Barcelona was held to a 0-0 draw by Rayo Vallecano and had captain Sergio Busquets sent off late in the game.
At the Camp Nou,
the Catalans had the majority of the possession and 21 shots on goal, but they were unable to break the tie.
Among the close-season additions made by Barca manager Xavi were defender Andreas Christensen, winger Raphinha,
and striker Robert Lewandowski,
who could only play after registering with the league late on Friday.
Before being able to confirm players like former Bayern Munich attacker Lewandowski in their team for the upcoming season,
the five-time Champions League champions had to adhere to La Liga’s stringent financial regulations.
Lewandowski’s competitive debut was marred by his being denied a goal as the hosts dominated the first 30 minutes.
After receiving a feed from Ousmane Dembele,
the Poland striker was deemed to be offside, and his skillfully chipped goal was subsequently ruled out.
With 10 minutes left in the half, Pedri nearly broke the score,
but his curling effort sailed past the post as rain fell at the Camp Nou in temperatures of 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit).
Despite Rayo’s dominance in the first half,
Marc ter Stegen made sure the score remained level at halftime with a superb save to deny Alvaro Garcia of Rayo.
In the first ten minutes of the second half, Barca continued to attack the Rayo defence but were unable to get past goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski,
who was engaged in two significant clashes on his line.
Frenkie de Jong replaced Gavi with 30 minutes remaining,
despite the fact that the Netherlands midfielder had been rumoured to be leaving Catalunya to help the club pay off its debt,
which had previously compelled Lionel Messi to leave.
Andoni Iraola, Xavi’s Rayo rival,
also made substitutions in the final 30 minutes, giving Radamel Falcao of Colombia his professional debut.
Lewandowski and De Jong combined with nine minutes remaining,
but the 33-year-strike old’s barely cleared the crossbar.
Seven minutes later, midfielder Franck Kessie, who joined Barca from AC Milan,
was offside before beating Dimitrievski, preventing another summer addition for Barca from scoring.
As a result of club captain Busquets’ red card for elbowing Falcao in the fourth of eight injury time minutes,
Xavi’s team finished the game with 10 men.
Falcao thought he had scored the winning goal to give Rayo their third straight victory over the Catalans less than 60 seconds later,
but the goal was disallowed for offside,
allowing the visitors to hold on for the point.
On just his eighth La Liga outing,
21-year-old winger Alex Baena scored twice to help Villarreal defeat Real Valladolid 3-0 earlier.
Franck Kessie, a midfielder who joined from AC Milan,
