Football Club Barcelona’s attempt to regain La Liga got off to a poor start this evening with a 0-0 draw against Racing Santander in the Nuevo Sardinero. Thierry Henry began on the bench but after coming on for Leo Messi he almost stole a victory for Barça when he hit the post in the 86th minute.

Barça started slowly and the first chances fell to Racing. Víctor Valdés had to save twice in the first ten minutes from Serrano and Duscher. Then in the 22nd minute Valdés was beaten but Colsa’s shot came out off the far post.

Barça created very little until the end of the first half when they came close three times. First a Messi cross almost reached Oleguer sneaking in at the far post, then an excellent pass from Ronaldinho found Xavi who despite being held back managed to clip the ball over the advancing Toño but Luis Fernandez got back in time to clear the ball off the line. From the resulting corner Messi tried to curl one into the far corner but Toño got down well to save.

The second half continued with few chances for either side. In the 61st minute Ronaldinho shot inches wide from a free kick. A few minutes later Racing’s new signing Smolarek, who had just come on as a sub for Bolado, shot wide after a mistake from Thuram. Smolarek didn’t last much longer on the pitch as he was sent off for a studs-up challenge on Eric Abidal.

With 21 minutes to play against 10 men Barça should have done a lot more to win the game. Henry and Deco were on for Messi and an impressive Touré Yaya, but Barça could only manage one more decent goal attempt when Ronaldinho passed to Henry and the Frenchman cut in from the left to shoot right-footed, as he did so many times for Arsenal, only this time the ball didn’t sneak into the far corner but instead bounced out off the foot of the post.

On the whole it was a disappointing first game. Hopefully Barça can still move up a couple of gears. Racing were a pretty decent team and you may remember that only last April they beat Madrid. However, the fact that the for the last twenty minutes Racing were down to ten men, this will have to go down as two points dropped.

Racing: Toño; Pinillos, Oriol, Garay, Luis Fernández (Ayoze, 45), Jorge López, Duscher, Colsa, Serrano (Cristian, 75), Munitis, Bolado (Smolarek (55)

Barça: Valdés 7 ; Zambrotta 6 (Márquez, 79, -), Oleguer 6, Thuram 5.5, Abidal 6; Xavi 5.5, Touré Yaya 7.5 (Deco, 69, 5.5), Iniesta 5.5; Messi 5.5 (Henry, 62, 6), Eto’o 5.5, Ronaldinho 6.