Four months after storming Camp Nou and delivering the league title in favor of Real Madrid, Rayo Vallecano was once again a headache for Xavi’s new Barcelona, where there were as many protagonists on the pitch as on the bench.
Jordi Alba was shipwrecked, Ter Stegen avoided disaster, Rafinha and Dembele were dismissed, Christensen conceded and Petrie collapsed, while Kavi showed a strange rain. But between them all, these three could be considered the highlight of Barça’s league debut.
Robert Lewandowski You have to expect a lot from Call who is a different footballer and the undisputed star of the team. Lewandowski has scored goals for over a decade and has surpassed 40 in the last seven seasons, so he’s sure to maintain that goal-scoring nose at Barca. But a player like him needs to hit the decisive point at the right time. He moved well between the lines, finished when he could (without success), and lost a bit of his nerve when subjected to an improper mark that he didn’t know how to get out of.
Ansu Fati Five minutes in, he’s already created more real danger than Lewandowski. Unruly, bold, fast and intelligent, he slotted in as a theoretical winger on the left but became a nightmare without a stable position, finishing quickly and exchanging positions to show injury was behind him. And he maintains the personality that should give him more than a resource and a title that, oddly enough, many don’t see in the present if he’s considered a future player. Short term.
GERARD PIQUE Because he wasn’t. Sitting on the bench, he didn’t even go out to warm up, and the loss of his streak was evident when he came on as a substitute for Christensen and Eric Garcia as Araujo moved to the right side. And there is still no official record of Counte to turn his challenger into who knows whether the Utopian. Fourteen years after arriving at Barça from Manchester, when he turned 35, the unthinkable began to be thought: Gerard Piqué became a simple replacement.
