Rayo Vallecano vs Espanyol Live Stream, Predictions

📊 Form Guide

Rayo Vallecano

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Rayo Vallecano will be hoping to return to winning ways here after a 3-1 La Liga defeat last time out to Real Betis.

In that game, Rayo Vallecano had 51% possession and 16 attempts at goal with 4 of them on target. The only player on the scoresheet for Rayo Vallecano was Santi Comesaña (52'). Real Betis had 11 shots on goal with 5 of them on target. Youssouf Sabaly (5'), Ayoze Pérez (44') and Borja Iglesias (96') scored for Real Betis.

It’s not been often in recent games where Rayo Vallecano have managed to hold out for a full 90 minutes. In fact, Rayo Vallecano have failed to prevent opponents from scoring in 6 of their previous 6 games, leaking 12 goals during that time.

Their past results show that Rayo Vallecano:

• are unbeaten in the league by Espanyol in their last 5 games.
• are unbeaten in their previous 3 home league matches.

Espanyol

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Following on from a losing effort in their last game against Barcelona in La Liga competition, Espanyol and their travelling fans will hope for a better result here.

In that game, Espanyol had 30% possession and 15 attempts on goal with 7 of them on target. For Espanyol, the goals were scored by Javi Puado (73') and Joselu (92'). On the other side, Barcelona got 15 shots on goal with 5 on target. Robert Lewandowski (11', 40'), Alejandro Balde (20') and Jules Koundé (53') scored for Barcelona.

Proving their penchant for high-scoring encounters, we’ve seen goals 22 times in the previous six games in which Espanyol have sent out their troops, yielding a mean average of 3.67 goals for each fixture. Opposition teams have got 14 from this total. That kind of pattern isn’t assured to be carried forward here, though.

Going into this game, the form guide shows that Espanyol:

• are winless against Rayo Vallecano when having played them away from home in the previous 4 matches in the league. Not good at all.
• are without an away win for the past 6 league matches.

↔️ Head to head

Looking over their most recent head-to-head meetings going back to 09/02/2019 shows us that Rayo Vallecano have won 5 of these games and Espanyol 1, with the number of drawn games being 0.

An aggregate of 13 goals were scored between the two sides in this period, with 9 from Franjirrojos and 4 belonging to Periquitos. That is an average goals per game value of 2.17.

The last league fixture featuring these sides was La Liga match day 2 on 19/08/2022 when the final score was Espanyol 0-2 Rayo Vallecano.

That time, Espanyol managed 55% possession and 13 shots at goal with 1 on target.

For their opponents, Rayo Vallecano got 8 attempts on goal with 3 of them on target. Isi Palazón (40') and Pathé Ciss (59') scored.

The referee was Jorge Figueroa Vázquez.

ℹ️ Team News: Rayo Vallecano

Almost everyone can be considered, as there’s just one fitness concern for the Rayo Vallecano manager Andoni Iraola to contend with thanks to an almost full-strength group. Radamel Falcao (Dead Leg) will miss out.

In our view, Franjirrojos could kick off with a 4-2-3-1 system for the game, beginning the first half with Stole Dimitrievski, Ivan Balliu, Florian Lejeune, Alejandro Catena, Francisco Garcia, Pathe Ciss, Santi Comesana, Isi Palazon, Oscar Trejo, Alvaro Garcia and Raul de Tomas.

ℹ️ Team News: Espanyol

Out of a mainly available group of players, there is only the lone fitness issue for the Espanyol gaffer Luis García to contend with. Keidi Bare (Ruptured ankle ligament) misses out for this game.

It’s our belief that Periquitos seem likely to begin the game with a 5-3-2 system with a starting lineup of Fernando Pacheco, Cesar Montes, Sergi Gomez, Leandro Cabrera, Oscar Gil, Brian Olivan, Denis Suarez, Sergi Darder, Nico Ribaudo, Javier Puado and Joselu.

🔮 Prediction

We believe that Espanyol will have to perform well to breach the defence of this Rayo Vallecano outfit who will likely be able to grind out a win.

Our tip is therefore for a narrow 1-0 winning score for Rayo Vallecano at the end of this one.

Hoping for a good game.

Our expert partners are tipping under 3.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.

Peter Guest, 00:54 17/05/2023