The tight competition among several teams in the standings is something we will commonly encounter at the beginning of the season. We will see some teams starting to become consistent and inconsistent by mid-season. Sometimes, we even see at the end of the season, teams that were initially consistent with good results eventually experience a decline in performance.
Madrid is indeed preparing for this season. They do not want to lose to Barcelona again. As for Barcelona, they need to improve their performance, not just in the defense line, but coordination in the attacking line, and finishing is also important. Last season, they performed better.
Last season Barcelona was the winner in La Liga, of course they were the best, and only had a difference of 4 points from Real Madird, of course in tight competition to the end, this rival has always been a big threat in La Liga, consistency is very important to get victory, because after all one step is wrong it will be difficult to pursue, competition is always strong in La Liga, there is no time to relax.
I am not focusing on Barcelona being the best and winning the La Liga title last season with an advantage over Madrid. However, I am looking at their performance at the start of this season, which I think is not as good as it was last season.
The competition with Madrid will continue, and this season the rivalry may be even more interesting. I'm not so sure Madrid will truly dominate throughout the season, but Xabi might try to make that happen.
Both last season and this season, I still believe Real Madrid will be La Liga champions, even though last season was quite disappointing because Real Madrid lost its balance due to player injuries, and we know that the coach cannot perfectly fill the vacant positions even with substitutes.
The rivalry will be even more intense this season, as Real Madrid will improve under good management. Xabi Alonso could win his first trophy with Real Madrid this season as coach, and I know Hansi will face a lot of pressure this season.
I have some disappointments with the Barcelona players in this match. Barcelona should have won, but Yamal gave Dani Olmo several chances, but he couldn't finish them. Two good chances came his way, but Olmo seemed too hasty, shooting wide.
Further disappointment, I criticize the defense for being too ambitious, wanting to help the attack score while neglecting their own defense. Barcelona defenders often gave Rayo players chances, which almost resulted in goals. Hansi Flick must correct this performance.
To be candid on this, Rayo Vallecano should have been the team to win this very match and not Barcelona, Barcelona didn't create enough chances for themselves for you to be suggesting that they would have won won the game. Rayo Vallecano players were wastful and missed lots of chances to have been in front and eventually win the match. Barcelona keeper saved them, if not they would have picked the ball 5 times at least from their own net. 7 shots on target for the home side and 3 shots on target for Barcelona.
We can't take that for granted, unless we discuss the scenario itself with those possibilities. In reality, Barcelona secured the victory, but I can clearly see that Rayo has made progress. They have the quality to compete well against Barcelona in that match, which is honestly very difficult, but I think they managed to develop successfully.