The Ray fulminates to the Barça and leaves to Koeman in the wire

Barça continues its particular descent into hell. The team led by Ronald Koeman fell against Rayo this Wednesday in Vallecas thanks to a solitary goal from Falcao and a penalty saved by Dimitrievski and aggravated their sporting crisis. The culé team gave away the first 45 minutes in a new football exhibition without depth and without a plan B to avoid the pressure raised by Andoni Iraola. The Catalans woke up too late and paid for it with a new defeat that may leave them closer to relegation than to the top of the standings. Barça is in free fall and Koeman is on the wire.

Koeman started in Vallecas with an eleven with several novelties. The losses of Frenkie de Jong and Ansu Fati, still in discomfort after the classic against Real Madrid, served to give the Dutchman an opportunity for Philippe Coutinho and Sergio Agüero. Both were starters in a lineup in which Dest returned as a winger and in which Nico occupied a place in the midfield to give Gavi rest.

Koeman’s plan with that eleven was none other than to place Nico and Busquets as the main receivers to avoid the high pressure of Andoni Iraola. That exit from behind, so non-negotiable in Can Barça, was seen by Rayo as an opportunity in the first minutes and ended twice at the feet of Trejo and Falcao. They were two notices that the Blaugranas could not read and soon they were going to pay dearly. Busquets lost the ball in the center of the field, Trejo put Tigre Falcao to run and the Colombian did what he has been doing all his life. He switched the ball from his right leg to his left and fired at the long stick to punish Barça before the 30-minute mark was up.

Falcao’s goal served as an anesthetic for the match. Those of Iraola, already with the booty under their arms, were able to soften the pressure made during the first third of the match, while those of Koeman fell into their almost usual I want and I can not. Barça tried to create danger in the final stretch of the first half, but they became a predictable team lacking depth.

After the resumption, Barcelona finally understood that they had to change the game script. The culés finished the first half with 72% of possession but without disturbing Dimitrievski at all, while in the second half he began to alternate the output of the short ball with long balls. Iraola’s trap no longer worked and the chances for Koeman’s began to follow. Nico stood before the Macedonian goal after a send to the back of the center-backs but fired wide and Agüero had two chances but did not hit the goal of Rayista.

With the game inertia modified, Koeman took the opportunity to move pieces. Demir entered for Sergi Roberto and moved Dest to the side. The changes were good for the Catalans and soon they were going to find a clear chance from the penalty spot when Memphis Depay entered the area and fell down by Óscar Valentín. Mateu Lahoz did not hesitate and gave the Catalans a unique opportunity. Eleven meters from the goal, two dynamics crossed. For Rayo this year everything comes out and Barça does very little, so the crossed shot by Memphis Depay was stopped by Dimitrievski to deliver another jug ​​of icy water for the Blaugranas.

From there, Barça began to give way to frustration. Koeman gave entry to Luuk de Jong for Nico, one of the best Blaugrana news in Vallecas, with the aim of widening the field and looking for a more direct game, but not even for those did he come close to the possibility of piercing the goal of a grown Dimitrievski after his intervention in the Memphis penalty. Barça was touched to the game against Rayo and left there struck down and aggravating a sporting crisis that threatens to leave the Catalans without the possibility of being in the fight to win the League before the equator of the championship.