A battle to stay in Europe between Rayo and Valencia

Rayo Vallecano and Valencia They are fighting this afternoon (7:00 pm) for the last train to avoid falling into Europe. Eleventh and tenth respectively, both with 20 points, the two will face direct competition for the quiet zone of the table and where the winner will still think about the European positions during the 2024 season , while the loser can say goodbye to Europe.

Rayo Vallecano will be looking to snap their bad streak of seven games without a win, during which they have accumulated four draws against key rivals such as Real Sociedad and Barcelona and three defeats. However, the team, which started the season very well, seemed to collapse and did not find the goal easily.

In fact, he went more than 320 minutes without scoring and the last goal was the one scored by Unai López against Barça in a 1-1 draw in Vallecas. Since then, they lost 4-0 against Athletic, drew 0-0 against Celta de Vigo and lost 1-0 against Osasuna on the last matchday.

This goalless streak for the team he coaches Francisco This damaged the Vallecano team, which once reached the European positions but seems to have fallen in recent matches. However, the people of Madrid have many players to turn the situation around. camello, Falcao, Pozo, Jorge de Frutos or Raúl de Tomás These are just some of the offensive alternatives available to Francisco to break this bad streak in front of goal against a Valencia who, in addition, have not won away from home since August.

Francisco admitted in a press conference that this lack of goals was worrying in the locker room, but he expressed confidence that against Valencia he could change the situation, especially to have a peaceful Christmas holiday.

For this match, due to the accumulation of matches in recent days, Francisco, who is still absent due to an injury to Argentine attacker Oscar Trejo, will introduce some variations to his eleven that could be the return of midfielder of Unai López, Aridane in the center of the defense of Florian Lejeune or Abdul Mumin and Camello at the top.

Baraja’s men, in fact, are still without a win in the last five games, where they have accumulated two draws and three defeats, but they come motivated after the good image shown against Barcelona at the Mestalla, in a against which they resist attacks. of those of Xavi Hernández and tied thanks to a goal from Hugo Guillamón.

Exactly the midfielder, who had no continuity all season and was not a starter until the match against Barça, could repeat as a starter as the Valencian Javi Guerra will serve his second game of suspension against Rayo after being sent off for protesting. .at Getafe.

They will have the difficult task of continuing to work hard on Saturday and breaking Valencia’s bad streak, because despite the team’s five consecutive games without a win, as a visitor they have not achieved success since the first game in league, where they beat Sevilla at Sánchez Pizjuán (1-2).

Since then, Baraja’s men have lacked continuity away from home and despite a good image displayed in most stadiums, they have not added three points in any of them. This was partly a result of Valencia’s poor last minute. In its last seven visits, the Valencian team dropped as many as eight points as visitors.

They lost a point against Getafe, they let themselves get beaten by Girona, they let themselves draw in the last minute against Athletic Club and they didn’t win against Almería. So, Baraja’s main goal is to ensure that the team keeps the result in the final minutes in case it leads in the first hour of the match.

Vallecano Ray: Dimitrievsky; Balliu, Lejeune, Aridane, Espino; Isi, Pathé Ciss, Valentín, Álvaro; Unai López; camel

Replacements: Cárdenas, Chavarría, Mumin, De Frutos, Nteka, Falcao, Baby.

Exit: Trejo.

Valencia: Mamardashvili; Thierry, Diakhaby, Mosquera, Yarek; Fran Pérez, Pepelu, Guillamón, Diego López; Yaremchuk, Difficult.

Substitutes: Jaume, Foulquier, Paulista, Cenk, Canós, Amallah, Alberto Marí.

Out: Javi Guerra