Barcelona are back on the road for their third and final La Liga match before the first international break of the season as the reigning champions travel to Madrid to face Rayo Vallecano at the Vallecas Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Blaugrana won their opening two matches but still haven\u2019t played their best football, and will need to be at their top level against a very well-coached Rayo side that always causes Bar\u00e7a problems at their home.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how we think Hansi Flick will line up his troops for Sunday\u2019s battle.<\/p>\n
Bar\u00e7a\u2019s defense conceded twice last week and haven\u2019t been exactly a fortress in the first two games, and Hansi Flick could make a few changes to his backline as he searches for a good defensive combination.<\/p>\n
We think Jules Kounde<\/strong> will make his first start of the season at right-back, but that doesn\u2019t mean Eric Garc\u00eda<\/strong> will be benched as we think the defender will partner Pau Cubars\u00ed<\/strong> at center-back, with Cubars\u00ed moving back to his favorite right side of the central pairing and Eric going to the left. Alejandro Balde<\/strong> will remain at left-back, though we can\u2019t completely rule out a start for Gerard Mart\u00edn who has finally been registered.<\/p>\n Frenkie de Jong<\/strong> missed last weekend\u2019s trip to Levante due to the birth of his second child, but the Dutchman was a full participant in training this week and will return to the lineup as Pedri<\/strong>\u2019s partner in the double pivot.<\/p>\n Flick went with four forwards last week with Raphinha as the number 10, but we think the coach will go back to a more traditional three-midfield setup and start Dani Olmo<\/strong> in behind the striker, with Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez most likely coming off the bench given all the rumors surrounding his future. Gavi is a doubt due to a knee issue, and we think Marc Casad\u00f3 will return to the bench after a subpar performance in his first start last week.<\/p>\n Bar\u00e7a\u2019s attack once again struggled to finish their chances in the first half last week, but came alive and performed much better in the second half. Marcus Rashford started and played relatively well but was replaced at halftime against Levante, and we think the Englishman will return to the bench with Flick going with three midfielders in this one.<\/p>\n Raphinha<\/strong> will return to the left from the start, with Lamine Yamal<\/strong> on the right and Ferran Torres<\/strong> retaining his spot up front after two strong performances to start the season.<\/p>\n Possible XI<\/strong>: Garcia; Kounde, Cubars\u00ed, Eric, Balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Ferran (4-2-3-1)<\/p>\n How do you think Barcelona should line up against Rayo? Let us know your thoughts, predictions and teams in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona are back on the road for their third and final La Liga match before the first international…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":186992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1396,1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-186991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-barcelona-la-liga","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115117090677384889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}