The good news for Marcus Rashford is that his loan move to Barcelona had already helped him earn a recall to the England national team. Indeed, Thomas Tuchel has given him a spot in the team ahead of the September World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia.
That said, having now featured in the first three La Liga games of the season, the Manchester United loanee has not exactly set the world alight. He played 21 minutes off the bench in the 3-0 away win vs Mallorca on the opening day, and then was hooked at half-time during the 3-2 away win against Levante. Most recently, against Rayo Vallecano, Rashford started on the bench and came on with 28 minutes to play.
Rashford Struggles to Impact 1-1 Draw vs Rayo Vallecano
Marcus Rashford in action for Barcelona against Levante
It was a difficult afternoon for Barcelona in general as they managed 12 shots at goal, the same number as their opponents (but with three fewer on target), playing away from home for the third game in a row. They took the lead through Lamine Yamal with a 40th-minute penalty, but could not hold on as Fran Perez levelled the scores in the 67th minute, with that strike enough to see the game finish as a 1-1 draw.
Rashford came on for Raphinha with 62 minutes on the clock and did his best to make an impact, with one shot, one key pass, and one out of two attempted crosses. He wasn't at his best though, losing the ball four times, succeeding with just one out of three of his dribble attempts, failing to find a teammate with his one long ball, winning just one out of three duels and being caught offside once.
Rashford has now played for a total of 94 La Liga minutes across the three games and has yet to score or register an assist.
The Spanish media were fairly mixed on his efforts against Rayo Vallecano. Sempre Barcelona, for instance, were quite damning with their player ratings as they gave him a 5.5/10 and wrote:
"Haphazard attempts and some questionable decisions, the English winger certainly did not make a good impression apart from a decent run here or there."
Goal ES were even harsher with a 5/10 rating, but actually spoke more positively as they noted: "He had a couple of brilliant moments but wasn't a huge improvement on Raphinha in the final 30 minutes."
AS also praised one moment which nearly opened up a chance after a good combination play with Robert Lewandowski. They remarked, "He connected well with Lewandowski, but he was offside. He played on the left wing."
All in all, Rashford had a fairly unremarkable performance and he'll hope to have more of an impact for both club and country over the coming months if he is to make good of his loan spell in Spain and do enough to make Tuchel's 2026 World Cup squad.
Stats vs SofaScore - as of 01/09/25