Next Saturday, 4th of October 2014, Barcelona will travel to Madrid to measure forces with Rayo Vallecano at Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas for round seven of the Liga BBVA, on a match that will constitute another important test for Luis Enrique’s new Barça, who remain undefeated at the Spanish league.

Although Barcelona keep showing signs of extreme quality at the domestic competitions, the team is somehow failing to impress at the UEFA Champions League. After a narrow home win over APOEL, on a match where Barcelona left very pale image of themselves, the Blaugranas failed to grant their second win of the tournament on their visit to Parc des Princes last Tuesday’s night. The Luis Enrique’s boys had more ball possession and more goal attempts but ended up by losing to a PSG side, who wasn’t able to count on their most important player, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It was a frantic match with both sides having plenty of opportunities to score but the French team was more effective in front of the goal and won the clash by 3-2.

Luis Enrique displayed his usual 4-3-3 system with Messi, Neymar and Pedro constantly moving in the front and a midfield trio composed by Busquets, Rakitic and Iniesta. The main problem of Barcelona was probably their defence line, as they looked fairly lenient during the entire match.

On a domestic level, however, apart from their unconvincing performance against Málaga last week, Barcelona have been comfortably sitting at the top of the table and are yet to concede a single goal after six matches. Last weekend, Los Blaugranas smashed Granada by 6-0 at Camp Nou and imposed the second consecutive defeat to the Andalusia team.

For their travel to Vallecas, Luis Enrique will still not be able to rely on the contribution of the erratic Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, who is suspended, and he is not yet certain if Rafinha will recover in time for the match.

As for Rayo, although they have started the season at a very slow pace, they seem to be recovering their good moment from last season as they’ve won their last two league matches. Over the weekend, Paco Jémez’s boys defeated Levante by 2-0 with two goals from their Brazilian sharpshooter Leo Baptistao, who seems to have returned to his good old days this season. The striker, who is currently on loan from Atlético Madrid, has already scored four goals so far this season and he has already proven to be a good replacement for Larrivey, who joined Celta de Vigo during the Summer.

When both teams met at Vallecas last term, Barcelona smashed Rayo by 4-0 on a match where Pedro scored a hat-trick.

Rayo’s defensive frailties have been fairly obvious this season and if Barcelona manage to score an early goal, they might repeat last season’s excellent result.

Rayo Vallecano

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - WWLLD

Barcelona

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - LWDWW

Possible Line-ups

Rayo Vallecano (4-2-3-1) - Toño - Tito - Zé Castro - Abdoulaye Ba - Insua - Baena - Trashorras - Kakuta - Licá - Bueno - Leo Baptistão

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Dani Alves - Piqué - Mathieu - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Xavi - Rakitic - Neymar - Pedro - Messi

Prediction

Rayo Vallecano 1 Barcelona 2