Lewandowski, the flagship reinforcement of the Catalan summer, holder on Saturday evening, failed to shine for his first La Liga match in the Blaugrana jersey.

He'll have to wait until next weekend for another chance to open his Real Sociedad field goalscoring tally.

Aligned in attack with the other rookie Raphinha and the Frenchman Ousmane Dembélé, who decided this summer to stay in Barcelona, ​​"Lewy" was found a few times but never managed to be decisive.

His best action came in the 13th minute: Dembélé launched the Polish centre-forward deep and the ex-Bayern striker stole his ball over Stole Dimitrievski to open the scoring... but his goal was immediately canceled for a clear offside position at the start of the action.

He had another chance at the end of the game (82nd), but his shot from the left did not find the frame.

And the Catalans even had cold sweats at the end of the match, when a goal from Salvi Sanchez (90th + 5) was canceled for an offside position.

Koundé in the stands

Raphinha, for his part, had plenty of balls to play but stumbled into the opposing defense before getting tangled up in technical approximations and coming out for Ansu Fati in the 61st.

The other Catalan recruits did not shine any better: Andreas Christensen, holder in central defense, gave way to Sergi Roberto on the hour mark, and Franck Kessié, who entered in 73rd in place of Pedri, did not is not shown.

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"It's a shame, really", regretted Eric Garcia after the match, at the microphone of DAZN.

"We are coming out of a very good pre-season, but the important match was today (Saturday, editor's note). Now we have to correct our mistakes," he added.

Only Jules Koundé, the French international defender recruited in Seville, had to watch the match from the stands, cap screwed on his head.

Thanks to the financial tour de force it achieved this summer, Barça managed to register all its recruits except Koundé to play the first day of the championship.

The Catalan club will have to release 20 to 30 M EUR in payroll to validate its registration with LaLiga, by separating from certain players in the hot seat (Frenkie de Jong, Memphis Depay...) or by negotiating the reduction of salary of the two co-captains Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique.

The Rayo, for its part, continues to progress: the players of the young Basque coach Andoni Iraola had beaten Barça twice last season in the league.

They haven't lost to the Catalans yet.

Villarreal in the lead

Although they were dominated the whole game, the players from the outskirts of Madrid had one of the most dangerous actions of the match: in the 45th+1, just before the break, Alvaro Garcia obliterated Ronald Araujo from a hook, but he forgot his free partners on his right and stumbled against Marc-André ter Stegen.

The Rayo can however thank their goalkeeper Dimitrievski, who saved the day several times.

In particular during a two-handed save on a recovery from Ansu Fati (65th) or on a flight in the 69th to repel a big long shot from captain Sergio Busquets, sent off at the end of the game for a bad gesture earning him a second yellow card (90th + 3).

Earlier in the day, Celta Vigo and Espanyol Barcelona went back to back (2-2), while Villarreal took control of the provisional standings thanks to their clear 3-0 success at promoted Valladolid.

Unai Emery's men won thanks to a first goal from young Senegalese midfielder Nicolas Jackson (21) after returning from the locker room (49th), then a double from Spanish midfielder Alex Baena at the very end of the match (81st, 90th) .

On Sunday, it's Real Madrid's turn to enter the arena: the men of Carlo Ancelotti, recent winners of the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday in Helsinki against Eintracht Frankfurt (2-0), move on the field of the promoted Almeria.

© 2022 AFP