Barcelona are in action in Madrid this coming Sunday. They travel to take on a Rayo Vallecano side that has upset them frequently in recent years.
Hansi Flick will be hoping that his current squad are over those issues against this opposition. Barca have started the new campaign brightly, although they needed to come from 2-0 down to beat newly promoted Levante 3-2 last weekend. A last-minute own goal settled the game in their favour.
Marcus Rashford started on the left for the Catalans in that one, with Raphinha operating in an advanced midfield role. However, that structure wasn’t a huge success, and we may see a more orthodox lineup from the Barca boss for this game.
Rayo Vallecano clearly believe they can be competitive. They rested most of their key players again in the Conference League on Thursday, so fatigue should not be an issue following on from their 4-0 victory over Neman of Belarus on this ground.
Inigo Perez’s side have also played two league matches. Both were away from home, with the Madrid club impressive 3-1 winners at Girona on the opening weekend, before sinking to a 1-0 defeat in Bilbao against Athletic.
After winning promotion in 2021, Rayo immediately went on a five-game unbeaten run against the Catalan giants. They excelled in this fixture under Andoni Iraola’s leadership, but haven’t had as much joy in more recent times, losing the last three meetings.
Defenders Nobel Mendy and Abdul Mumin are the only injury absentees for the hosts. A number of players will return to the lineup, having been rested in Europe.
As for Barcelona, they are without the injured Marc-Andre ter Stegen once more, while Gavi is rated doubtful.
Rayo Vallecano: Batalla, Chavarria, Felipe, Lejeune, Ratiu, U. Lopez, Ciss, A. Garcia, Diaz, I. Palazon, De Frutos.
Barcelona: J. Garcia, Balde, Cubarsi, Araujo, Kounde, Pedri, De Jong, Raphinha, Olmo, Yamal, Ferran.
