The return of FC Barcelona from the international break that lasted for two weeks did not go very well for the club, as they were only able to earn a point from their game against Rayo Vallecano, which was played away from home.
At the beginning of the game, the backup goalkeeper for Barcelona, Inaki Pena, was unable to stop a powerful strike from Unai Lopez, which caused the team to fall behind for the first time on the day.
In the end, with fewer than ten minutes of normal time remaining, Florian Lejeune scored an own goal, which resulted in the game ending in a 1-1 tie. The Catalans were able to take away a point from the match.
In the first half, Rayo scored, which meant that out of the 14 goals that Barcelona has allowed to be scored against them in La Liga this season, nine of those goals have been scored in the first half. This is a 64% goal differential, which is the second-highest percentage in the league, just behind Real Madrid (67%).
During the course of this season, Barcelona has established a pattern of sorts in which they have been able to save games by late goals, and today was no exception.
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As a result, the Catalans have already won 15 points in La Liga this season from goals scored in the final 15 minutes of a game. This is the greatest tally this term among the top five leagues in Europe.
Despite the fact that Barca were able to salvage a point, the result of the match, which was 1-1, meant that manager Xavi Hernandez is still without a victory in his four matches against Rayo Vallecano (D2 L2).
This also meant that Barcelona had not won any of their previous five matches against Rayo in La Liga since they defeated them in March of this year (D2 L3). However, they did win one of those matches.
In spite of the fact that he was not totally satisfied with his own performance, Frenkie de Jong made his long-awaited return from injury today for Barcelona and went away with the award for Man of the Match.
De Jong has been a part of the Barcelona team for eight games this season, and the Catalan club has won six of those games and drawn two of them. This has allowed Barca to extend their unbeaten streak to eight games.