Following a summer of retooling, Barcelona will be out to impress against Rayo Vallecano in their season opener on Saturday.
Bookmaker 10bet has the odds at 4.10 for Barca to win by one goal. The odds are at 3.90 for a two-goal victory and at 5.00 for a three-goal win.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: August 11th, 8:00 A.M. (EST)
Barca’s poor financials have left the club struggling to register its new signings, but a number of news outlets are suggesting that everything will get sorted in time for the first match of the season.
The new-look Blaugrana will have Robert Lewandowski leading the line and there’s some extra quality all over the pitch, which should make the team title challengers again in Spain.
Lewandowski was simply unstoppable playing for a superteam in Germany and the same will likely happen in Spain as well where there’s also a big gap in quality between the top teams of the league and the rest. The Polish ace will turn 34 soon, but aging doesn’t seem to bother Lewandowski as he’s just enjoyed one of his best ever campaigns with 50 goals across all competitions.
Raphinha is set to star in La Liga as well after developing into an all-around attacking threat at Leeds United and this could turn into a real nightmare for Rayo if they can’t produce a top performance.
The side from Madrid managed to do a league double over Barca last season, but they had a very poor finish to the campaign and ended up just four points ahead of the relegation zone. The team sees 36-year-old Radamel Falcao as one of its main sources of goals and even though he is clearly past his best, he was the one who scored the winner against Barca on home turf last term.
Manager Andoni Iraola hasn’t been able to spend a single cent on the squad during the transfer window and there haven’t been any free signings that stand out either. The lack of reinforcements will make it difficult to compete in the league.
Rayo were one of the worst away sides in 2021-22 with 12 losses in 19 games and their campaign ended on a very sour note when the team won just two of their final 20 games with 12 of those matches coming by way of defeat. A positive result at Camp Nou would greatly lift the mood around for the team, but it’s expected to be very difficult to get anything going from the game against such a formidable opponent as Barcelona.
