FIRST HALF Barca had a slow start to the game thanks in large part to Rayo, who came to Camp Nou with a solid game plan and frustrated the Blaugrana’s attack with intense, physical pressing all over the pitch. The referee allowed the visitors to chase down Barca’s players throughout the half, so Rayo managed to constantly stop the Blaugrana’s momentum and never let the home team settle into a rhythm. As time went on, however, Barca’s superiority began to show and spaces began to open up in Rayo’s defence. Pedri used his skills to win one-on-one duels and find his team-mates in dangerous positions and the attacking trio of Ousmane Dembélé, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski were increasingly involved as Barça began to create dangerous chances. The Catalans came close at several moments but never found the back of the net, and Rayo showed they were still in it when Álvaro García went on a solo adventure on the counter-attack and almost scored a superb goal, but Marc-André ter Stegen made a brilliant attitude. At half-time a brave and stubborn Rayo side proved their worth and went 45 minutes without conceding, and Barca needed to step up their intensity in the second half to find the winning goals on the opening night. SECOND HALF The second half started with a great chance for Rayo which Camelo missed, but that was the only dangerous attack from the visitors in the final period. The rest of the half was dominated by Barca, who raised the intensity and started to trouble the visitors a lot with constant crosses and shots. Goalkeeper Stole Dimitrevski made some huge saves, but every defensive effort from Rayo became increasingly desperate late on as the Blaugrana increased their momentum. As we entered the final 10 minutes, however, there were still no goals and desperation began to set in for the home side. Lewandowski almost scored a superb winner and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang nearly found the net with his first touch from the bench, but Rayo continued to survive in the dying moments. Franck Kessie even found the back of the net in the 88th minute, but the goal was correctly ruled out for offside. Even with eight minutes of stoppage time, there was no way through Rayo’s defence, and after Sergio Busquets was sent off for a second yellow in the 93rd minute and Falcao had Rayo’s 95th minute winner disallowed for offside, Barca were truly relieved when The last whistle came to give each team a point in a goalless draw. It’s certainly not the best way to start the season and there will be huge overreactions because that’s just how Barcelona talk works. This was the first game with a new team against a very good Rayo side, and there were many positives from it. Not getting all three points is bad, but it’s only the first game. Calm down everyone. Barcelona: Ter Stegen? Araujo, Christensen (Robert 60′), Erik, Alba (82′ Aubameyang); Gavi (De Jong 60′), Busquets, Pedri (Casier 72′); Rafinha (Hontros 60′), Lewandowski, Dembele Targets: None Red card: Busquets (90’+3) Valley Lightning: Dimitrievski; Balliu, Lejeune, Catena, Garcia; Lopez (Valentinos 62′), Sis; Issi (Sanchez 79′), Trejo (Pozo 84′), Alvaro? Camel (Falcao 62′) Targets: None
