'Barca has problems and is having difficulty in the race at La Liga'

The break to make way for the national team matches is affecting Barca a lot. The Catalan team lost two important pillars, Gavi and goalkeeper Ter Stegen. Despite the return of Frenkie De Jong after 2 months out due to injury, the "Blaugrana"'s performance has not improved much.

Another star to look forward to, Pedri, was placed alongside Frenkie De Jong in midfield but was completely absent. The Spaniard repeatedly made mistakes and put his team's goal in danger on several occasions. Up front, Lewandowski played disappointingly and was given the lowest score in the match against Rayo Vallecano.

Frenkie De Jong is the most outstanding player in Barca's squad despite just returning after 2 months of injury.

The lack of cohesion in the playing style caused Barca to concede a goal in the first half. Taking advantage of the indecisiveness of Barca's defense, Unai Lopez fired a shot from outside the box, completely defeating goalkeeper Inaki Pena. More notably, this was the 11th time in La Liga 2023 - 2024 that Barca let their opponents score and take the lead after the first half ended.

Like the previous matches, coach Xavi struggled to find a way to improve the match in the second half. He went all out by putting all the strikers on the bench, Felix, Fermin and Raphinha, on the field. However, the game did not improve compared to before. It was only thanks to an own goal by midfielder Florian Lejeune in the 82nd minute that Barca could find the goal to tie the score at 1-1.

Coach Xavi stood on the sidelines and kept shaking his head at his players' performance. After the match, the Barca captain sadly shared: "These are difficult situations that are happening to us. Barca should have been awarded a penalty, typically the situation when Raphinha was fouled. I complained to the referee and they confirmed it was right. But the final decision was not like that.

Barca have problems and we have to be critical. Barca are struggling in the race for La Liga and we have to win these games if we want to win the title. But in modern football, a lot has changed when they score against you."

Coach Xavi went to complain about the referee's decisions

The 1-1 draw at Rayo Vallecano left Barca with 31 points, ranking 3rd. They could be widened by the two teams above them, Girona (34 points) and Real Madrid (32 points), if both win in the match on November 26. In addition, the teams below are gradually catching up with the "Blaugrana". Most notably, Atletico Madrid - the team ranked 4th (28 points) and played 2 fewer matches than Barca.

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