On Saturday, October 17, Barcelona FC hosts Rayo Vallecano in a Spanish Primera La Liga game. The game will be played at the Camp Nou stadium in the city of Catalonia and will kick off at 19:30 BST.
The hosts are currently in 4th position on the league table, with 15 points from 7 games, while the visitors are in 15th place, with 7 points from 7 games.
A win for the Catalonians can see them ascend to the top of the table, while a defeat could see them drop to 7th position. Rayo Vallecano can ascend as far as 9th place with a victory in this game while a defeat could see them slump to the foot of the table.
The Cules, managed by Luis Enrique are in good form, with three wins and two defeats in their last five games in all competitions. These wins include league victories against Levante (4-1 on September 20), and Las Palmas (2-1 on September 26). They also defeated Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League (2-1 on September 29).
The treble winners, suffered recent league defeats to Celta Vigo (4-1 on September 23), and Sevilla (2-1 on October 3).
Struggling Rayo Vallecano, managed by Paco Jemez, is in decent form, with two wins and three defeats in their last five games. These victories were against Las Palmas (0-1 on September 20), and Sporting Gijon (2-1 on September 23).
The Madrid based team have suffered a number of defeats recently, including losses to Deportivo la Coruna (1-3 on September 14), Sevilla (3-2 on September 26), and Real Betis (0-2 on October 4).
In the continued absence of talisman Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar will have to pick up the slack for Barcelona, both in terms of creating, as well as in finding the back of the net. Rayo Vallecano goalkeeper Tono will undoubtedly be a busy man on the day, ensuring one of football’s great attacking teams don’t find the back of the net.
Barcelona might be without their best player, but they still have way more quality than Rayo Vallecano. I expect the Catalonians to win this game comfortably.