FC Barcelona Made This Piece Of Unwanted Club History In Rayo Vallecano Defeat

FC Barcelona and their coach Xavi Hernandez made unwanted club history in their 1-0 defeat to Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.

Trumped for the second time this term by the La Liga new boys, with a loss via the same scoreline in November which saw Xavi’s predecessor Ronald Koeman dismissed, Barca have now been beaten in three consecutive games at Camp Nou for the first time since being founded in 1899 according to master statistician Mister Chip.

It all began last week with the unwelcomed visit of Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League quarter-final second leg.

With the score tied at 1-1 on aggregate, Xavi was seeking his first European win at home since taking over from Koeman.

Yet with 35,000 or more Germans storming Barca’s ground and making the fixture seem like another away game, the Blaugrana failed to rise to the occasion and ran out losing 4-3 overall which pretty much ended their hopes of silverware this season.

Standing 12 points behind Real Madrid, the La Liga title was always going to be a push and any ambitions to catch up to Los Blancos proved to be nothing but pipe dreams when Cadiz beat Barca 1-0 the following Monday.

Now another relegation-threatened outfit in Rayo have come and done the same job in Catalonia with just one league win in 2022, and Barca are now at risk of slipping out of the Champions League spots if they continue in this fashion.

Finishing second place is worth a much needed €8mn ($8.6mn) to Xavi’s men as it also guarantees participation in the Spanish Super Cup this season.

Anything less is unacceptable for an outfit that previously went 15 matches unbeaten, yet despite thrashing Madrid 4-0 in the Bernabeu in El Clasico has worryingly looked a shell of itself since the international break.

“We’re really struggling in games at home,” admitted captain Sergio Busquets post-match. “We concede early and we have to turn things around. The opposition grows in confidence, play with the result and if we’re not effective in both boxes, it’s doubly hard.”

Barca have three more home games left this term – against Mallorca, Celta Vigo and Champions Leagues semi-finalists Villarreal – and the least Culers deserve is a bit of happiness before the conclusion of another season to forget.

Whether it will be delivered is another matter entirely.