Espanyol vs Rayo Vallecano - Will The Franjirrojos Keep Up With Their Recovery Against Espanyol?

Next Sunday night, Rayo Vallecano will travel to Catalonia to go head-to-head with Espanyol at Estadi Cornellà El-Prat for round 33 of the Liga BBVA.

The visitors - Rayo Vallecano - are enjoying a very positive moment at La Liga as they only lost one of their last seven matches and they are looking at next Sunday’s clash as a good opportunity to continue their recovery on the league table. After being completely trashed at Santiago Bernabéu two weeks ago, Paco Jémez’s boys managed to bounce back and they grabbed a vital 3-0 win against Celta de Vigo last Saturday at Vallecas. The Madrid team are probably one of the most pleasant surprises of La Liga since the beginning of the March and their manager’s ambitions go way beyond their current position at the league table as he has recently claimed that he wants his side to finish among the first ten teams.

For next Sunday’s match against Espanyol, Paco Jémez will not be able to count on the Romanian international Razvan Rat, who is suspended because of a head butt he applied to Celta’s forward Charles that will certainly cost him a four-match suspension.

As for Espanyol, last weekend’s match is surely something they want to forget quickly. The Catalonia team was hammered at Sanchez Pizjuán 4-1 against Sevilla and added yet another consecutive defeat to their season tab after having sucumbed to Barcelona two weeks ago at Estadi Cornellà El-Prat. Espanyol’s head coach, the experienced Javier Aguirre, claimed after the match that the final result against Sevilla was to heavy for his team as they had fought bravely until the local team scored the third goal in the last minutes of the match.

For next Sunday’s important clash against Rayo, the Mexican head coach, will not be able to count on David López (who is a key element to the team’s midfield line), due to suspension, and he will probably also not be able to count on Hector Moreno, who is not yet fully recovered from his tailbone injury.

When both sides played at Vallecas last November, the visitors brought on all their quality and won the match 4-1, mostly thanks to a hat-trick by their captain Sergio Garcia.

Espanyol

Stats: W-11 L-14 D-7

Recent Form - LDWLL

Rayo Vallecano

Stats: W-11 L-18 D-3

Recent Form - WDWLW

Possible Line-ups

Espanyol (4-4-2) - Germán - J. López - Colotto - R. Rodríguez - Fuentes - Abraham - V. Sanchez - Pizzi - Álex Fernandez - Stuani - S. Garcia

Rayo Vallecano (4-2-3-1) - Rubén - Arbilla - Zé Castro - Gálvez - Mojica- Trashorras - Saúl - Rochina - Bueno - Falqué - Larrivey

Prediction: Espanyol 1 Rayo Vallecano 1