Last season's champions (Barcelona) were held to a draw by Rayo. This was certainly far from my prediction. I assumed Barcelona would win against Rayo, as their squads were clearly the best, boasting many star players. In today's bet, I bet on a Barcelona win because I saw Barcelona as the strongest. Unfortunately, my guess was wrong, and the match between Rayo and Barcelona ended in a draw.
As the home team, Rayo certainly played well, attacking Barcelona well. If I'm not mistaken, they scored numerous goals. Unfortunately, the referee only awarded one goal in this match. If all of Rayo's goals had been awarded, Rayo would have had the potential to win against Barcelona. If Yamal hadn't scored on penalties, it seemed certain Barcelona would have lost to Rayo. Fortunately, Yamal scored on a penalty kick.
All clubs and teams even how strong and dominating they are in any league, have difficult matches sometimes and they can have draw or loss in such matches. This match with Rayo Vallecano is such a tough match for Barcelona but it's helpful for Hansi Flick to see the squad weakness and problems, as well as help Barcelona players realizing that they are not perfect and can not beat all opponents.
This match is a valuable lesson for Barcelona with many young players to keep calm, work harder, and improve themselves for more important and bigger matches ahead.
Now, Hansi Flick must really improve Barcelona's game so that the Barcelona players can capitalize on the opportunities that arise.
As a head coach, Hansi Flick has many things to do as well as very big responsibility. He succeeded with Barcelona last season but if he can not maintain it or do it better in this season, he can be sacked similarly to Xavi seasons ago. Barcelona with their big financial crisis will not be able to give any head coach to much time, sympathy if results are bad which in turn can affect their finance negatively.