Robert Lewandowski endured a frustrating debut for Barcelona on Saturday when Rayo Vallecano held on for a 0-0 draw at Camp Nou in their Spanish league opener.
Lewandowski and his new teammates were kept well in check by Rayo, which also proved dangerous on the break and was only stopped from scoring by the goalkeeping of Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
More than 81,000 fans turned out to see the new-look Barcelona that club president Joan Laporta built after mortgaging the future of the club to get some much-needed cash to sign Lewandowski and four other new players.
But the biggest applause Lewandowski heard from the crowd was to show their appreciation for his hustle on defence late in the match with Barcelona stymied in attack. The closest the former Bayern Munich star went to scoring was a header flicked well over the bar in the first half.
Barcelona finished with 10 men after Sergio Busquets got a second booking in stoppage time when he swung his arm into the face of Rayo substitute Radamel Falcao. Falcao then had what looked to be a winner waived away for offside as Rayo went close to claiming a third straight win over Barcelona after it stunned the Catalan club twice last season.
Embarrassment for United
Erik ten Hag’s bad start as Manchester United manager descended into an embarrassment as a 4-0 thrashing by Brentford left the Red Devils bottom of the Premier League.
The former Ajax boss’ reign began with Brighton’s first ever win at Old Trafford last weekend, but much worse was to come as the Bees punished a series of errors to score four times in the first 35 minutes.
Josh Dasilva’s strike slipped through David de Gea’s grasp to open the floodgates before Mathias Jensen pounced on United’s attempt to play out from the back to make it 2-0 inside 18 minutes.
Ben Mee then exposed the visitors’ frailty from set-pieces for his first Brentford goal and Bryan Mbuemo rounded off a stunning counter-attack 10 minutes before half-time to sink United to the bottom of the table for the first time in 30 years.
The results: Premier League: Nottingham Forest 1 (Awoniyi 45+2) bt West Ham 0.
On Saturday: Brentford 4 (Dasilva 10, Jensen 18, Mee 30, Mbeumo 35) bt Manchester United 0.
La Liga:
On Saturday: Celta Vigo 2 (Aspas 45+2, Pacienca 63) drew with Espanyol 2 (Exposito 72, Joselu 90+7-pen); Real Valladolid 0 lost to Villarreal 3 (Jackson 49, Baena 81, 90); Barcelona 0 drew with Rayo Vallecano 0.
Serie A: On Saturday: AC Milan 4 (Hernandez 12-pen, Rebic 15, 68, Diaz 46) bt Udinese 2 (Becao 2, Masina 45+4); Sampdoria 0 lost to Atalanta 2 (Toloi 26, Lookman 90+4).
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