Barcelona struggled in their debut La Liga match as Rayo Vallecano held on for a scoreless draw.
One of the new summer signings, Robert Lewandowski, was attempting to break the tie, but he was unsuccessful.
The Poland forward missed the finest opportunity to score after the interval and was called for offside with a first-half attempt.
While Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets was dismissed in stoppage time for receiving a second yellow card, Vallecano’s Sergio Camello came close to scoring the game’s winning goal.
Only 24 hours before the game, four of their new additions had been registered to participate, which gave fans at the Nou Camp reason for excitement.
Barca had been unable to register new players because of La Liga financial regulations, but freed up funding with several “economic levers” which allowed Lewandowski, Andreas Christensen and Raphinha to start this game, while Franck Kessie was named on the bench.
The hosts had 21 shots to Vallecano’s four, but as the game wore on. tensions began to grow as the visitors remained resolute in defence.
Lewandowski, signed from Bayern Munich for £42.6m, had the best chance after the break when he spun his marker but could only fire wide as he failed to score on the opening day of a season for the first time in eight years.
