Barcelona will officially finish the 2023-24 La Liga season as runners-up thanks to a hard-fought 3-0 victory against Rayo Vallecano in their home finale at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium on Sunday evening. Barça scored early and went through quite a few scares for most of the night against a bold, attacking Rayo side, but two second half goals by Pedri were enough to seal the win and secure second place with a game to spare. FIRST HALF Barça made a perfect start to proceedings with a goal inside three minutes, thanks to a brilliant cross by Lamine Yamal and a great finish by Robert Lewandowski inside the box to settle the nerves and put the home team in control right from the start.
The first 15 minutes were played at a lightning-quick pace as Rayo were not interested in avoiding conceding a second and took initiative, sending plenty of bodies forward and creating real danger with set pieces, long balls and shots from distance. Marc-André ter Stegen made a couple of solid saves, and the away team showed they were very much still in the game. The rhythm of the contest slowed down considerably for the rest of the period, however, as Barça took control of possession and made fewer mistakes on the ball, getting into their passing patterns and forcing Rayo to defend deeper inside their half.
But the Catalans couldn’t manufacture any real chances, and wasted a few good attacks with poor decisions in the final third. Florian Lejeune missed a wide-open header in the dying .
