Next Monday, 1st of December 2014, a fragile Almeria will go head-to-head with the always unpredictable Rayo Vallecano at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos for round 13 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, on a clash especially relevant for the Andalusian team who is currently on a considerable poor run of six matches without a single win.

Almeria are once again experiencing some complicated days at La Liga. Similar to what happened last season, the Andalusian team is near the relegation zone with just 10 points from 12 matches so far and only two wins. The Francisco Rodriguez’ boys have, nevertheless, managed to lift their heads slightly last Monday, as they grabbed an important point from their visit to their neighbours and rivals of Granada. After four consecutive defeats, Almeria managed to get their heads above ground for a while but another defeat against Rayo Monday would certainly throw them into the abyss once again.

For that important match, Francisco Rodriguez will not be able to rely on Azeez’ contribution, who is currently suspended after being sent off on last round’s clash against Granada.

As for Rayo Vallecano, the Madrid outskirts’ team that are currently on the 11th place of La Liga’s table granted an important win last weekend when they overcame Celta de Vigo at Vallecas. After a very heavy defeat against the current European champions at Santiago Bernabeu earlier last this month, Rayo managed to lift their heads and defeated one of the most surprising teams of Spanish football this season, Celta de Vigo. The Galician team, who shocked Barcelona at Camp Nou not so long, has somewhat dominated the match at Vallecas but wasn’t able to properly react to Bueno’s goal on the 20th minute of the first-half. The current Paco Jémez’s Rayo is a bit different from last season’s team but if we think that they usually only start to reach their full potential on the second part of the season, one might consider their path at La Liga fairly positive so far.

For the match at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos, Paco Jémez will not be able to rely on the contribution of Insua and Tono, who are currently recovering from injury, and of Insua, who is suspended.

From what we have witnessed so far this season, Almeria tend to be slightly more consistent when playing home, thus they enjoy from a slight favouritism for the upcoming match against Rayo.

Almeria

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - DLLLL

Rayo Vallecano

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - WLLLW

Possible Line-ups

Almeria (4-2-3-1) - Ruben - Navarro - Dos Santos - Trujillo - Dubarbier - Verza - Velez - Zongo - Soriano - Teye - Bifouma

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

Prediction

Almeria 1 Rayo 1