FC Barcelona (4th, 6pts) vs Rayo Vallecano (16th, 1pt)<\/p>\n
Competition\/Round: 2026-27 La Liga, Matchday 3<\/p>\n
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Marc Casad\u00f3, Roony Bardghji, Frenkie de Jong (out), Gavi (doubt)<\/p>\n
Rayo Outs & Doubts: Luiz Felipe, Augusto Batalla (GK), Isi Palaz\u00f3n, Marash Kumbulla (doubt)<\/p>\n
Date\/Time: Monday, August 31, 2026, 9.30pm CET (Barcelona), 8.30pm BST\/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3.30pm ET, 12.30pm PT (USA), 1am IST (India, Tuesday)<\/p>\n
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain<\/p>\n
Referee: Francisco Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez Maeso<\/p>\n
VAR: Raul Mart\u00edn Gonz\u00e1lez Franc\u00e9s<\/p>\n
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), Premier Sports 1 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), others<\/a><\/p>\n How to watch online: ESPN+<\/a> (USA), Premier Sports Player (UK), FanCode (India), DAZN (Spain), others<\/a><\/p>\n Following a very good win over Athletic Club on Thursday in their home opener, Barcelona return to La Liga action with another home game as the champions look to make it three wins out of three when they welcome Rayo Vallecano to the Greatest Stadium on Earth on Monday Night F\u00fatbol.<\/p>\n Hansi Flick\u2019s side will look to continue building momentum after two very good wins to begin the season, but the test against Rayo is a big one: the team from Madrid are quite simply Bar\u00e7a\u2019s bogey side in La Liga, and games against them have been brutal for the Catalans in the last few years.<\/p>\n In their last 11 meetings Bar\u00e7a have won just five, lost three and only won by more than one goal once, which shows just how well Rayo play the Blaugrana no matter the stadium and the difference in quality between the two teams.<\/p>\n Rayo have exploited Bar\u00e7a\u2019s offside trap better than any other team since Hansi Flick\u2019s arrival, and even with a change in coaching and two subpar performances in the opening two games under new boss Be\u00f1at San Jos\u00e9, Rayo remain a threat and deserve Bar\u00e7a\u2019s full attention.<\/p>\n The Catalans have attacked well and scored goals and look very threatening with a more fluid front three, and they are still waiting for Lamine Yamal to reach his best level while Raphinha, Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez, Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi lead the way in these early stages.<\/p>\n Bar\u00e7a are playing well and are full of confidence, but Rayo just know how to make it tough for them. This will certainly be a battle.<\/p>\n Barcelona (4-3-3): Joan; Eric, Cubars\u00ed, Christensen, Espart; Ferm\u00edn, Bernal, Pedri; Yamal, Raphinha, Gordon<\/p>\n Rayo (4-2-3-1): C\u00e1rdenas; Ratiu, Lejeune, Fern\u00e1ndez, Vertrouwd; Ciss, L\u00f3pez; De Frutos, D\u00edaz, P\u00e9rez; Camello<\/p>\n Rayo just know how to play Bar\u00e7a, and will make this tough even with the champs\u2019 strong early form. I\u2019m picking the home team to make it three wins in three, but they will not have an easy time: 2-1 Bar\u00e7a.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FC Barcelona (4th, 6pts) vs Rayo Vallecano (16th, 1pt) Competition\/Round: 2026-27 La Liga, Matchday 3 Barcelona Outs &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[251783,1480,403,99],"class_list":["post-831733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-barcelona-match-previews","tag-barcelona-la-liga","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}