Anwar Ibrahim (Cairo)
It seems that the strong performance, in the friendly meetings that precede the official season of the clubs, is not an indication of the need to continue to shine when playing the official matches, as evidenced by what happened to Barcelona in its first official match in the Spanish League “La Liga” at its stadium and among its fans in the “Camp Nou” in front of Its guest, Rayo Vallecano, fell into a goalless draw, and its Polish strikers, Robert Lewandowski, the Brazilian Rafinha, the Spaniard Ansu Fati, and the Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, could not beat the visiting goalkeeper Dimitrievsky.
During the preparatory period before the new season, Barcelona defeated its arch-rivals Real Madrid 1-0, New York Red Bulls 2-0, and the Australian League stars 3-2, after which its stars shined in a remarkable way, in the match held in the “Joan Jumpers Cup” against Mexican Pumas, who plays for former Brazilian “Barca” star Dani Alves, beat him in the “Camp Nou” 6-0, scored by Lewandowski “goal”, Pedri “two goals”, Osman Dembele “goal”, Aubameyang “goal”, and De Jong “goal”.
The Catalan fans were good with a “fiery start” in the new season, but the players and their technical staff, led by Xavi Hernandez, disappointed them, and made their tongue say: We contracted with stars in all lines “Lewandowski, Frank Casey, Rafinha and Christensen, and we renewed the contract of Osman Dembele, and we kept Frinki.” De Jong, despite all this, did not manage to win the first real test for the team of the new season, it was a really disappointing start.
The match of Rayo Vallecano, in its entirety, witnessed a futile and ineffective Barcelona control, in the face of a tight defensive organization, on the part of the visiting team, with reliance on counter-attacks, one of which could have made things more difficult for the “Catalan”.
The biggest evidence of the lack of effectiveness is that the first chance that bore the smell of danger came to Barcelona after a full 20 minutes from the start of the match, and it was a powerful shot from Rafinha, and it went over Dimitrievsky’s goalkeeper Vallecano bar, while the second chance came to Pedri 16 minutes later, and his shot also went away. About the goalpost.
On the other hand, the visiting team did not remain silent, but tried to take advantage of the counter-attack, and its star Alvaro Garcia was around the corner, scoring against Ter Stegen minutes before the end of the first half.
The match continued in its second half, and the referee added 8 minutes of time instead of wasted, and Sergio Busquets was sent off in the 93rd minute, after receiving a second warning.
Xavi was not happy in his statements after the match, as he said: We were not in the best condition, it is true that we reached the opponent’s goal, but we did not score, and we missed the final touch, but we have to believe in our new sports project.
Xavi admitted that his team did not play a great match, and that Rayo Vallecano defended well, and was distinguished at the tactical level, and praised their goalkeeper.
He added: I understand well the disappointment of the fans, who were waiting for a lot from us, and I am not looking for excuses, but we have to be patient, and the positive results will come quickly, because our goal is to win trophies, and if that does not happen, we will all be disappointed, the club, me, the players and the fans.
#Barcelona #disappointment #beginning