Next Sunday, 8th of March 2015, a super motivated Barcelona will take on a fairly inconsistent Rayo Vallecano at the majestic Camp Nou for round 26 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, a match that the Catalan team needs to win in order to maintain their dream of winning the league title alive.

The home defeat against Málaga three weeks ago has not caused mayhem at Barcelona, as some pundits have predicted. In fact, the team quickly bounced back and, just three days later, defeated Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium for the UEFA Champions League. Barça are currently enjoying a very positive period once again and their win over Villarreal last Wednesday night have certainly contributed to give a boost to their already high morale levels. With that 3-1 win, Barcelona granted a place on the Copa del Rey final where they will face Athletic Bilbao, that eliminated Espanyol on the other semi-finals' match.

Despite all the criticism, Luis Enrique is managing to implement his own ideas and game style in the team and, although his relationship with some of the team’s biggest stars is not the best, the strong willed Asturian manager is managing to push forward.

Barcelona’s upcoming match against Rayo Vallecano will probably not be a very complicated one, especially if we have in mind what happened the last time the Madrid outskirts' team visited Camp Nou. Back then, Barça won by 6-0 and if they manage to net in an early goal next Sunday and disrupt Rayo’s defensive fortress early in the match, they might very well replicated such goal galore. For the clash against Rayo, Luis Enrique will not be able to count on the services of Neymar, who is suspended, and on the Belgian defender Vermaelen, who remains sidelined due to his long term injury.

As for Rayo, they seem to go from rags to riches very quickly and so far this season they have been particularly inconsistent. After an excellent home win over Villarreal and a defeat at San Mamés, Rayo returned to wins last weekend as they defeated Levante by 4-2 at Vallecas. Paco Jemez's boys put up a quality performance and sealed three precious points on their battle against relegation. For the upcoming clash against the all-powerful Barcelona, Paco Jemez will not be able to rely on Baena, who is currently suspended, and on Fatau, who remains sidelined due to injury.

Barcelona are firm favourites for next Sunday’s match, as the visitors don’t seem to have what is needed to cause the Blaugranas a major upset at such an overwhelming stadium as Camp Nou.

Barcelona

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WWWLW

Rayo Vallecano

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - WLWLL

Possible Line-ups

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Alves - Mascherano - Piqué - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Iniesta - Rakitic - Pedro - Suárez - Messi

Rayo Vallecano (4-2-3-1) - Alvarez - Tito - Zé Castro - Amaya - Nacho - Jozabed - Trashorras - Kakuta - Licá - Bueno - Manucho

Prediction

Barcelona 3 Rayo Vallecano 0