Barcelona vs Rayo Vallecano prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2025-02-16 20:00.
[p]After a mid-season blip, Barcelona are well and truly back in the La Liga title race after a 4-1 thrashing of Sevilla, with that the eighth time they’ve scored 4+ goals in the league this season. That win brought them to within two points of the leaders, and the turn of the year appears to have done Hansi Flick’s men the world of good, with the Blaugrana unbeaten in all 11 of their games in 2025 (W9, D2).[/p]
[p]That includes three successive league wins, but Barcelona face a challenge to make it four against Rayo Vallecano as they failed to win two of their last three home H2Hs (D1, L1). They did manage to win the reverse fixture 2-1 back in August, so this game presents them with a chance to win three successive H2Hs for the first time since January 2021![/p]
[p]No team in La Liga have enjoyed a better start to 2025 than Rayo Vallecano, picking up a league-high 13 points from their five matches so far (W4, D1). Their club-record unbeaten run in the top-flight now stands at nine matches (W5, D4), with that sequence including three successive victories – Rayo last managed four in a row in La Liga back in January 2013![/p]
[p]Rayo remain underdogs to repeat the act against one of the division’s best sides, but can take encouragement from a five-game unbeaten run on their league travels (W2, D3). Each of those matches saw them score exactly once, but more may be needed to emerge victorious here as they have managed just one clean sheet in 11 previous games against sides starting this round in the top half of the table (W3, D5, L3).[/p]
[p]Players to watch: La Liga’s top scorer this season (G19), Robert Lewandowski will be looking for a repeat of last season’s corresponding fixture when he opened the scoring in a 3-0 win. Álvaro García was on target for Rayo against Valladolid last time out, while he also scored decisively the last time they won an away H2H back in 2022.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: No team has scored more league goals in the first ten minutes than Rayo’s six ahead of the round.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Sridhar B[/i][/p]