When Barcelona visits Rayo Vallecano on Tuesday night, they will be looking to make it three wins out of three at the beginning of the 2024-25 La Liga season.
In their first two games of the new season, Hansi Flick’s team has defeated Valencia and Athletic Bilbao, while Rayo has made a strong start and has taken four points from their two matches.
After winning 2-1 against Real Sociedad on the road in their first game of the new campaign, Rayo shared the points with Getafe in a goalless draw their previous game.
With four points from two games, Inigo Perez’s team is off to a great start. They now have back-to-back home games against Barcelona and Espanyol, with their first game following the impending international break being on September 14 against Osasuna.
Since making a comeback to the top level in La Liga, Los Franjirrojos have ended in 12th, 11th, and 17th place in three separate campaigns. Last season, they were just five points ahead of the bottom three.
This summer, Perez’s team was able to add five new players to their roster while also losing five, the most significant of which was Andres Martin, who left to join Racing Santander.
Rayo has relished their recent encounters with Barcelona, winning three of their last six La Liga games and only losing one, that being their previous meeting back in May, by a score of 3-0.
Barcelona, on the other hand, has also had a great start to the season. On August 17, they defeated Valencia 2-1 before defeating Athletic on Saturday night by the same score.
Nico Williams, who turned down the opportunity to sign with Barcelona in order to remain with Athletic, had been the subject of much pre-game discussion.
However, Flick’s team managed to record six points from their first two games thanks to goals from Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal.
The team has had a great start to the season, with Lewandowski in particular impressing. Off the field, there are still problems, with the club rushing to move players on in the final stages of the market to ensure that Dani Olmo and any potential late arrivals can be registered.
In fact, Barcelona lost all five of their La Liga games against Rayo between October 2021 and November 2023, and their most recent meeting in Madrid ended in a 1-1 stalemate in November of last year.
The Catalan team will go into Tuesday’s
game as the clear favorites to win, though they will be aware that Real Madrid’s superiority this season has reduced their margin for error.
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