Dani Olmo celebrated a “dream debut” on his return to Barcelona by scoring the winning goal in Tuesday's 2-1 comeback win over Rayo Vallecano in LaLiga.
Olmo, 26, missed Barca's first two games of the season due to the Catalan side being unable to register him for exceeding the spending limit imposed by La Liga, but his signing was finally processed this week and he has made an instant impact in Vallecas.
The Spanish international came off the bench at half-time and scored the decisive goal in the 82nd minute to give Barca their third win out of three at the start of the season after Pedri had earlier cancelled out Unai López's opener in the ninth minute.
“I'm very happy, very happy with the game and with the win,” Olmo told ESPN. “It was a dream debut for me.”
Olmo had to wait to make his competitive debut after signing a €55m contract with RB Leipzig earlier this summer following his exploits with Spain as La Roja won the European Championship.
However, the versatile striker, who came through the Barça youth system before leaving for Dinamo Zagreb at the age of 16, said he always believed the club would resolve the financial problems that were delaying his signing.
“Of course, it was a dream to come back,” Olmo added. “I had no doubts when Barcelona came knocking on my door. So I'm very happy to be here.”
“I had confidence in the club [would sort out the registration]”I was ready, I was preparing myself physically for when I had the opportunity to start playing. Today I was able to do it, so I'm very, very happy with how it went, how it ended and how important it was for the team.”
Barça coach Hansi Flick was also delighted with Olmo's performance after bringing him on as a substitute for Ferran Torres at half-time when his team were losing 1-0.
“He waited a long time to score a goal for Barça,” Flick said at a press conference. “When he came on, we saw that we had more control of the ball. It was very good.”
“For him, that's what he brings, he's very secure in possession and he can also score goals in front of goal. For a midfielder, that's not normal, but he's really good at it.”
“I think the start of the second half was good for us and that's why he was on the pitch. He's doing very well, even without the ball, we're closer to the ball and we put pressure on our opponents very well. He made the difference in the second half.”
Olmo's winner ensured that Barca became the only LaLiga team to start the season with three consecutive wins, a feat they had not achieved since the 2018-19 campaign under Ernesto Valverde.
However, Flick is not getting carried away by the wins against Valencia, Athletic Club and Rayo, insisting his thoughts are firmly fixed on the weekend's home game against Real Valladolid.
“Now that we have nine points everything is fine, but it's not like that,” said Flick. “We will analyse [the game] And on Saturday we have the next game and we have to play much better than in the first half.
“We defended well, but not perfectly in the first half. At half-time I told the team that I was at 80% that it is not possible to win here in this environment with Rayo playing well, with a lot of long balls and fast players. It is not easy to defend this. We have to press the ball more and we did better in the second half.”
Barca's victory was marred by a late injury to Marc Bernal. Sources told ESPN that the club fear the 17-year-old has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury that could keep him out for most of the campaign.
“It's a sad victory because Marc is injured and he doesn't look very good,” said Flick. “We have to wait until tomorrow to see how much he weighs. When you look at the dressing room, nobody is happy. He had a fantastic game, at 17 years old and he performed like that. It hurts.”
