{"id":702,"date":"2025-02-18T19:35:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T11:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/?p=702"},"modified":"2025-02-18T19:35:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T11:35:51","slug":"lewandowski-lifts-barcelona-past-rayo-and-into-liga-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/18\/lewandowski-lifts-barcelona-past-rayo-and-into-liga-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewandowski lifts Barcelona past Rayo and into Liga lead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-36.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-703\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-36.png 1000w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-36-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-36-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Robert Lewandowski scored from the penalty spot as Barcelona scraped out a 1-0 home win over Rayo Vallecano on Monday to climb top of the Spanish Liga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barcelona were seven points off first place three weeks ago but the two big Madrid clubs have suffered dips in form. Both drew their games 1-1 on Saturday playing with 10 men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barcelona took advantage on Monday night by eking out a victory over a third Madrid team, Rayo, thanks to their star striker. Lewandowski scored his 20th goal of the season with a 28th-minute penalty that went in off the post. Rayo goalkeeper Pep Chavarria repeatedly frustrated Barcelona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the other end, Jorge de Frutos had a strike disallowed and missed with a headed chance in added time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It was hard work for the players and at the end we are happy,&#8221; said Barcelona coach Hansi Flick. &#8220;Everyone is happy about our new position. I think we played very well, although I think we can do better.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barcelona remained unbeaten in 12 matches in 2025 while ending the 10-match unbeaten run that had lifted Rayo to a surprising sixth place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.besoccer.com\/match\/barcelona\/rayo-vallecano\/20256548\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Lewandowski scored from the penalty spot as Barc [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions\/704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}