Espanyol vs Rayo Vallecano – Preview, H2H, Line-ups, Prediction | La Liga 2022-23

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Rayo Vallecano will travel to Cornella de Llobregat this Friday to face Espanyol for their second game of the 2022/23 La Liga season. 

Venue: RCDE Stadium (Cornella de Llobregat)

Key Statistics

Espanyol are winless in their last eight league games (D4, L4).

They have failed to score in three of their last eight league games. 

Rayo Vallecano are one of the two clubs (alongside Atlético Madrid) to have defeated Espanyol twice last season.

The visitors are winless in their last six La Liga games (D3, L3).

They have scored an average of exactly one goal per league game since the beginning of last season.

Head to head

Rayo Vallecano have won each of the last four league meetings between both sides. 

Latest performances in all competitions

Espanyol: D-D-L-L-W

Rayo Vallecano: D-D-D-W-D

Espanyol

Espanyol will look to get their first win of the season and their first win over Rayo Vallecano in five tries when both teams face at the RCDE Stadium this Friday.

The hosts opened their La Liga account this term with a surprise 2-2 draw away to Celta Vigo last weekend. In a game that saw them come from two goals down, a late winner by new signing Joselu helped them to snatch a point.

The result which Espanyol boss Diego Martínez called a “very big effort” by the team was just the third time since the start of last season that they salvaged points on the road after conceding the opening goal for (W1, D2, L11). 

Martinez will now hope that his side can build on that battling performance and get maximum points against a side that beat them two times last season. 

Possible Espanyol starting line-up

Benjamin Lecomte; Oscar Gil, Sergi Gomez, Leandro Cabrera, Brian Olivan; Costa, Fernando Calero, Sergi Darder; Ruben Sanchez, Nico Malamed, Joselu.

Injured: Pol Lozano, Adria Pedrosa, Javi Puado, Raul de Tomas

Doubtful: None  

Suspended: None 

Rayo Vallecano

Rayo Vallecano produced arguably the best performance in matchday one of the 2022/23 La Liga season when they held a new-look Barcelona side to a credible 0-0 draw at the Nou Camp last weekend. 

In doing so, they extended their unbeaten record against the Catalan giants to three games (W2, D1) while head coach Andoni Iraola also became the first manager to keep a clean sheet in each of his first three La Liga managerial outings against 26-time title winners Barcelona. 

And so Iraola will travel for the second consecutive week to the city of Barcelona brimming with confidence that his chargers can achieve another good result and extend their winning run against Espanyol to five consecutive games. 

However, his side are winless in their last six games (D3, L3) and will have to give their best, especially in attack where they have averaged just one goal per game since the start of last season. 

Possible Rayo Vallecano starting line-up

Diego Lopez; Ivan Balliu, Florian Lejeune, Alejandro Catena, Fran Garcia; Santi Comesana, Oscar Valentin; Isi Palazon, Oscar Trejo, Garcia Rivera; Radamel Falcao. 

Injured: None 

Doubtful: None 

Suspended: None 

Prediction

Espanyol 1-1 Rayo Vallecano