With six wins in their last seven games and 24 goals scored, as well as 14 league victories on home soil this season, Barcelona headed into Sunday afternoon’s fixture against Rayo as the heaviest of favourites.
The 7-2 annihilation of Newcastle in midweek was just the boost that Hansi Flick and his squad needed as we hurtle into the business end of the domestic and European campaigns.
The visitors were winless in eight La Liga away games and hadn’t scored in their last three away head-to-heads, however,
Barca had failed to win more matches against the Lightning than any other side since 2021-22.
Let’s take a look at three talking points from the game…
Araujo heading for more game time at Barca?
Whenever Ronald Araujo is stationed on the right side of defence, I can’t help but think that Barca are the weaker for it.
In fairness to the Uruguayan, although he’s played there many times before, it isn’t his natural position, and you can tell by the number of times he’s caught out of position, how he often isn’t aware if there are runners behind him, etc.
Against Rayo, though he did reasonably well in some exchanges, and was the match winner, though he was at fault for their chance in the opening minute, and he just doesn’t inspire the confidence that a captain should.
Surely putting him in the centre with Pau Cubarsi, placing Joan Cancelo on the right and Gerard Martin on the left gives the back four much more balance?
Movement needed to be sharper up front
Props to Rayo for limiting Barca’s attacking intent for long periods.
Though the hosts were incisive at times, the natural flow from the front three often wasn’t there. Passes didn’t find a teammate, dribbles didn’t come off…
Not quite an off day, but certainly not the best performance from Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, Ferran Torres and Lamine Yamal.
The visitors had one less day to prepare for the match, and were able to cut out several of Barca’s attacks with ease, which is a damning indictment on a team that is chasing a league title.
Joan Garcia remains vital to Barca’s continued success
Culers have become so accustomed to Joan Garcia’s excellence between the posts that the sort of performance he provided against Rayo is now the expectation.
The flying save from Unai Lopez’s header was world-class, but it wasn’t the only stop of real quality from the custodian.
Not to mention how good he was with his feet again as usual, evidencing how vital he remains to the team.
Such performance levels are what he’s paid to do, of course, though the repercussions if he were to get injured are obvious.
