La Liga champions Barcelona beat Cadiz 2-0 with late goals from Pedri and Ferran Torres in their first home game away from Camp Nou on Sunday.
At Real Betis, Atletico Madrid and Real Betis played to a scoreless draw.
Cadiz nearly beat Barcelona, who were playing at the Olympic Stadium on the city’s Montjuic hill while their stadium is being rebuilt and improved over the next year and a half.
Getafe held them to a frustrating 0-0 draw on the first weekend, and Cadiz almost did the same thing until Ilkay Gundogan set up Pedri to score with a smart pass.
Torres came on as a substitute, drove through the middle, and scored in stoppage time to make up for another lackluster effort.
“I’m happy and happy with how the team worked and how they played their positions,” said Barca coach Xavi Hernandez. “It was a well-deserved win.”
The Catalan coach, who was banned from the bench after getting sent off against Getafe, put 16-year-old Lamine Yamal on the right side in place of Raphinha, who was also sent off last weekend when things got heated.
The Catalans came closest to scoring in the first half when Yamal, making his first start for the club, hit an angle shot that Jeremias Ledesma deftly deflected away from danger.
Because the team was temporarily moving from Camp Nou, there were about 10,000 empty places, and not many people bought season passes.
Even though it was mostly quiet, Xavi said, “I think it’s great for the club and the fans that 40,000 people came to support the team.”
At the other end, Barcelona goalie Marc-Andre ter Stegen did even better. After Alejandro Balde gave the ball away on the halfway line, Roger Marti had a chance to score, but ter Stegen made a great save to stop him.
New contract After a scramble in the box early in the second half, Oriol Romeu’s goal-bound shot was stopped. Barcelona had a hard time getting past their Andalusian opponents.
Yellow Submarine almost took the lead when Ruben Alcaraz smashed a shot wide and Chris Ramos came close with a rasping shot.
At the other end, Barca defender Gavi hit the crossbar with his head, and Xavi replaced him with Moroccan winger Ez Abde.
As the coach tried to find a way to win, he changed to a three-defender scheme and put Ansu Fati in for Balde.
Putting on the brakes
Barcelona sent crosses into the area to find Robert Lewandowski, but the Polish forward didn’t do anything to bother the defense.
“He will score, but he needs to be more patient,” Xavi said when Lewandowski moved out of his place to join the play.
“I understand that he wants to come. You can’t lose where you are.
“I thought he did a good job for the team in the second half, and he set up the goal for Ferran.”
Ledesma made a great save on a wicked curling shot from Abde after Barcelona had taken a break to cool down in the hazy evening heat.
They finally scored when Gundogan, a former player for Manchester City, played a cute ball through for Pedri to slide past Ledesma with eight minutes left.
The Canary Islander held up a shirt to honor Tenerife, which is being destroyed by fires right now.
“It was hard, yes, and we should have scored much earlier,” Xavi told Movistar.
The coach liked what Gundogan did in the last part of the field.
“That’s why we signed Gundogan; he makes the difference with the final ball,” he said.
Cadiz almost tied the game when Darwin Machis hit a shot from close range that went over the crossbar.
Torres gave Barcelona the win when he ran onto Lewandowski’s shot, went through the middle of Cadiz’s falling defense, and scored.
Frenkie de Jong told Movistar, “We suffered again, but we won, which was the most important thing for building confidence.”
At Real Betis, where Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid team was outmatched, they were unable to win again after their first weekend win.
Isco was great again in the middle for the home team, which had more shots but none that hit the goal.
Mario Hermoso made Rui Silva make a save, but neither team did much to cause danger in a dull tie.