Last weekend Barcelona took full advantage of the 1-1 draw between the two Madrid sides, beating Sevilla 4-1 and cutting the gap between themselves and the top of LaLiga to just two points (at the time of writing). They host high-flying Rayo Vallecano next.
By Alex Roberts
Rayo have won their last three consecutive league games, but they haven’t been pretty. Álvaro García’s 71st minute goal was the decider in their previous fixture against Real Valladolid, earning them a four-point gap between themselves in sixth and Real Sociedad in seventh – as things stood heading in to the weekend.
Barca can’t seem to stop scoring goals under Hansi Flick, and now they’ve closed the gap on Real Madrid at the top, there will be an almost insatiable desire to make a real statement.
A wealth of attacking options
It doesn’t matter who Barca play in their front three right now, they’re almost guaranteed to score a real bagful of goals. Ferran Torres and Lamine Yamal were the main protagonists in the 5-0 Copa del Rey over Valencia, while Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha were the main men in the win over Sevilla.
Flick’s side are unbeaten across their first 11 games of 2025 across all competitions, scoring a remarkable 41 goals – the most the club has ever recorded at this stage of a new calendar year since 1943.
Barca have scored five goals OR MORE on five separate occasions since the start of the year. There are worse jobs that been a Rayo Vallecano defender, but it’ll probably be pretty dire on Monday night.
The blue haired bandit
It takes a brave man to dye his hair blue, and an even braver one to do it when they’re in the public eye. Romanian right-back Andrei Rațiu has backed his hair style with some impressive performance for Rayo, earning the reported interested of none other than, you guessed it, Barcelona.
Rațiu has been almost ever present for Rayo so far this season, starting 20 of his 21 LaLiga games, scoring once, and providing two assists, playing a key role in their charge for European football.
He didn’t make it off Rayo’s bench in the reverse fixture, which Barca won 2-1 thanks to goals from Pedri and Dani Olmo, so he’ll be wanting to prove a point in a potential audition.
Ronald Araújo can’t catch a break
The centre-back had just signed a new deal, keeping him at the Camp Nou until the summer of 2031 amid serious interest from Italian side Juventus, but now, he’s picked up another injury.
Araújo was brought off after just 22 minutes in the 4-1 win over Sevilla, replaced by youngster Pau Cubarsí, with that appeared to be, a thankfully not so serious ankle injury, keeping him out of action until the end of the month at least.
He had only started featuring regularly in the new year having picked up a hamstring injury while playing in the 2024 Copa America, forcing him to miss the first half of the season.
Just as things were looking up the Uruguay international suffered yet another setback.
Prediction
Barcelona have been seriously impressive so far this year. While Rayo are punching about their weight, this one doesn’t seem like a bout they can win. We’re going to go with 3-0 to Barca.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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