Barcelona toma la punta de LaLiga gracias al penal de Lewandowski

Barcelona regained the lead after two months. They did so by beating a bold, brave and uninhibited Rayo Vallecano at Montjuïc in a match that was not without controversy. The Madrid team felt disadvantaged and the Blaugrana took advantage of the circumstances. In the end, 1-0 and LaLiga, with Flick's team at the top, was more equal than in recent years.

Encouraged by the double setbacks of Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid , Barça went into the match convinced that they would take a step forward... but without realising that they would be up against an unquestionably valuable rival. It is no exaggeration to suggest that this Rayo, whose squad value must not even reach the 20 per cent that Ancelotti and Simeone have under their command, has a top-level footballing bet, capable of standing up to anyone and that proved to be a terribly uncomfortable rival for Barça.

So much so that the Blaugrana team was unable to advance until just before the half-hour mark, when a grab by Pathé Ciss on Iñigo Martínez was reviewed by the VAR and awarded a penalty, converted by Robert Lewandowski and which began to upset the Madrid team, already complaining about an earlier grab by Hector Fort on Abdul Mumin that was neither called nor reviewed...

Of course, Rayo was more complaining when referee Melero López disallowed a goal by Jorge de Frutos for offside by Randy Nteka , who, positioned in the centre of the area, seemed to block Íñigo Martínez, who was the protagonist twice and who it is not known whether he went for the forward seeing that he could not reach the ball or was really prevented from reaching it by the Rayo forward.

These were review plays, complaints or normal ones, depending on how you look at them, but far from awakening Barça and causing them to impose themselves on the pitch, they left them focused on a back-and-forth match, in which their dominance was not at all what was expected.

In fact, in the second half, the score was as close to 2-0 as it was to 1-1, with Rayo sticking to their non-negotiable bet, playing with touch and speed against a Barça that did not know, or could not, resolve the victory and ended up asking for time, desperate in the face of the pressure from a Rayo that left empty-handed, with as much disappointment as pride.