Barcelona vs Rayo Vallecano

Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys is the venue as title-bidding Barcelona take on La Liga surprise package Rayo Vallecano in a high-stakes La Liga showdown.

Back to their usual best after a mid-season blip, Barcelona thrashed Sevilla 4-1 last weekend to reduce the gap on La Liga leaders Real Madrid to only two points pre-round. That was their third consecutive league victory and the eighth occasion this season to see ‘Los Blaugranas’ score 4+ goals in a league game. Hansi Flick’s charges have gone from strength to strength since the turn of the year, going unbeaten in all nine competitive matches in 2025 (W9, D2). While Rayo Vallecano’s upcoming visit looks like a routine task on paper, Barcelona only won one of their last three league H2Hs at home (D1, L1). However, they emerged as 2-1 winners from August’s reverse fixture and could post a third successive H2H win for the first time since January 2021.

Meanwhile, Barcelona’s red-hot form shouldn’t faze Rayo Vallecano as they head into proceedings as the division’s most in-form La Liga team in 2025 (W4, D1). The visitors are on a club-record nine-game unbeaten run in Spain’s top flight (W5, D4), including three wins on the trot ahead of this fixture, last winning 4+ in succession in 2013. Furthermore, they’ve not lost any of their five away league games since the beginning of December (W2, D3) despite netting precisely one goal per game on each occasion. Therefore, defensive resilience could be Vallecano’s best chance to upset the apple cart in Catalonia. But they’ve only managed one clean sheet across their last 11 league encounters against teams starting this round in the top half of the table (W3, D5, L3).