Lewandowski’s debut wasn’t quite the disappointment the scoreline suggests

Image via @FCBarcelona on Twitter

With Robert Lewandowski making his first league appearance for Barcelona last night, we were all expecting a flying, goalscoring start.

This did not happen. Rayo Vallecano were resolute in their defending throughout, and Barcelona looked like a team still trying to adjust to their new signings, and although this is perhaps a touch churlish, the officiating of the match was confusing at best.

Despite the 0-0 result, there were plenty of positives from a Lewandowski point of view. He worked well within the team, holding up the ball and linking play, and dragging defenders out of the way for his teammates. There were a few times he was fouled in the box, although these were not adjudged severe enough to warrant a penalty. He also could’ve had an assist, when he managed to take the ball past a defender on the right wing, before picking out Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang at the far post, but his effort was cleared off the line.

Although there were no clear-cut chances on goal for Lewandowski, there were a couple of shots he took that didn’t miss by much. Nice as it would’ve been for one of these snapshots to find the back of the net, particularly a left footed shot from just inside the box after taking it past a defender, this was still a positive to take from his performance.

It was a frustrating match to watch, and I’m sure many of those reading will agree with me, given that a Lewandowski goal on his competitive debut would’ve been the best way for him to acclimatise to a new team and a new league, but as I said, it was still a fairly solid performance from him.

So, whilst the result is disappointing, there were plenty of signs that things will work out for Lewandowski at Barca. In my opinion, the performance and scoreline last night was actually a marked improvement over last season, when they lost both home and away in the league to Rayo Vallecano.

It will be interesting to see if anything changes in terms of line-up or tactics in the next game, in a week’s time against Real Sociedad.

For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.