Barcelona takes a hot flash at the beginning of its new era

Barcelona had a good hot flash at the dawn of its new era.

As nervous as imprecise, as insistent as innocent,

's team did not know how to knock down Rayo, an old torment.

It wasn't even enough for the azulgrana with a frantic last stretch commanded by the repudiated

in which

, a new franchise footballer, failed to focus on the goal, and

, another of the new ones, had the redeeming goal annulled for offside .

The same fate befell

in 95. Not even the added eight minutes offered any relief to this Barça in which

ended up being sent off.

LaLiga needs Barcelona to stop being a dying club.

Because this, let's not forget, is an industry that denies the small and feeds on the big.

Barça, even if it is selling its framework -one day to a fund, another to a cryptocurrency company, and the next to

, needs to be competitive because football does not allow failure and the income statement does not grow without goals either.

And the fan, perhaps the last romantic reserve of this sport, just wants a tingle, to get excited again about a team that, at least, allows him to escape for a while from that assembly line of misfortunes that is life.

That is why the Camp Nou, with the commercial name of Spotify already nailed to its spine, presented a formidable entrance.

The fans, with sweat-soaked shirts in a stadium that at times sublimated the heat of Dante's hell, hinted that the days of desertion may be behind us.

Faced with such a pile-up of signings -Lewandowski,

and

were already starters against Rayo, with Kessié leaving last and

waiting to be signed up- the fan has no choice but to trust in a better time.

poor harmony

But in football, a handful of good pieces do not usually succeed if they are not understood and move in harmony.

And in this Barcelona, ​​no one has yet cut the umbilical cord that ties it to its most recent past.

Hence, Rayo Vallecano, the same mature, compact and courageous team that

took to the last semifinal of the Copa del Rey, dragged the azulgrana to the limit of sanity.

continues to caracole with his head nailed to the ground,

continues to be a dagger on the right bank, and few like

to unsettle the midfielder with his

game .

The performance of Rayo should not be surprising in the face of recent precedents: last season,

he was sacked after a crash in Vallecas and Xavi also lost his match at the Camp Nou.

The clearest chance of the first act, in fact, was in the added Álvaro García, scorer in his last visit.

The winger, before encountering

sitting

.

And here is one of the first dysfunctions of this new Barcelona in which Xavi, in his idea of ​​fitting in the central defenders and staying with those who best get the ball, condemns the Uruguayan to the right side.

Araujo finds a black hole there from which it is difficult for him to escape.

Despite having

and

in ​​their ranks -both substituted when the team was up to their necks in water-, Barcelona was a team of extremes.

With all that this entails when one of them is

, as unpredictable for the rival as for the partner, and Raphinha, who's desire to like him played a trick on him in his official debut.

Dembélé and Raphinha rehearsed their preconceived plan over and over again: face one the baseline, and wait for the other in front to finish off.

But that didn't work out.

emergencies

Lewandowski discovered Barça's urgencies too soon.

He got tired of creating spaces by taking the central

out of his position , but he no longer knew what else to do for someone to offer him a suitable ball.

The Polish striker had woken up scoring a goal offside, showing that very little could be enough to open the game.

But there was no way.

So Barcelona had to begin to regret situations, such as a penalty denied to Raphinha after a clear contract by

-although the Brazilian seemed to start from an offside position-, or a shot by Pedri from the balcony.

The restlessness at the Camp Nou could only grow, especially after Christensen arrived in time for

not to get around Ter Stegen.

The German goalkeeper, in fact, prevented

's goal in the 95th minute before

crowned offside.

Xavi wants the result, at least now, to be more important than the game.

He did not get the first and was very far from the second.

The attacks by waves of twilight (the azulgrana team concluded with 21 shots) only referred to an impotent Barcelona.

A Barcelona that has not gone away.

"It is a mistake to do things too easily," wrote

in

.

Although living in difficulty does not offer any consolation either.

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