Espanyol vs Rayo Vallecano prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2025-12-06 17:30.
[p]Espanyol and Rayo Vallecano are aiming to bounce back from disappointing Copa del Rey performances against lower-league opposition when they clash on matchday 15 in La Liga.[/p]
[p]Match News and Current Form[/p]
[p]Espanyol were left embarrassed on Thursday night when they were dumped out of the cup by fourth-tier outfit Atlético Baleares (1-0). They can quickly forget that humiliation and focus on greater ambitions with back-to-back La Liga victories seeing them occupy a European spot on the table at the beginning of this weekend. Manolo González must now rally his side to try and earn their sixth home victory of the campaign in La Liga (D1, L2), and whilst Espanyol have lost two of their last three matches against teams from the Community of Madrid (W1), their imposing home record carries far greater weight. [/p]
[p]Vallecano came from behind and required a last-gasp goal in extra time to scrape past fourth-tier opponents Real Ávila in their midweek cup game, a timely way to bring an end to a four-game winless run across all competitions (D3, L1). There’s a lot of work to do yet with Los Franjirrojos currently enduring a four-game winless La Liga run (D3, L1) that saw them fail to score three times during that sequence. Their overall away record is better than most in the division (W3, D1, L4), but Iñigo Pérez’s side have paid the price for their recent form by losing ground in the race for Europe and began this weekend seven points worse off than Espanyol.[/p]
[p]Head-to-Head History[/p]
[p]Espanyol are on a three-match winning run against Vallecano and have lost just three of their last 17 home league H2Hs (W9, D5).[/p]
[p]Hot Stats and Streaks[/p]
[p]Espanyol have scored nine of their 12 home league goals this season after half-time. [/p]
[p]Espanyol scored in both halves of only one of their 14 league games this term.[/p]
[p]Excluding one 0-0 draw, the team that scored first won all of Vallecano’s away games this La Liga season.[/p]
[p]Vallecano’s first 14 league fixtures produced the highest average number of total corners (11.8 per game).[/p]
[p]Key Players to Watch and Missing Players[/p]
[p]Kike García’s three league goals this term have all been match-winners for Espanyol that were scored on or beyond the 70th minute. Vallecano’s Unai López is yet to draw a career H2H against Espanyol, with this set to be his tenth meeting with the Parakeets (W5, L4) – he assisted the opening goal in his last win.[/p]
[p]There will be late fitness checks for Espanyol’s Fernando Calero and Vallecano’s Nobel Mendy following midweek omissions in the Copa del Rey, while Pathé Ciss is suspended for the visitors.[/p]
[p]For all the latest team news, please check the Flashscore match centre.[/p]
[p]Betting Analysis[/p]
[p]The statistics point towards plenty of set pieces here, so we recommend backing over 10.5 total corners.[/p]
[p][i]Author: Ben Olawumi[/i][/p]