rayo vallecano

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FC Barcelona took full advantage of an opponent that had the courage to come out and attack, storming to an electric 6–1 victory over Rayo Vallecano in front of a packed house at Camp Nou and vaulting them past Real Madrid into first place in the Spanish League standings, for the first time in four months. Messi net three, Suárez added two and Piqué scored one goal. The Argentinian tied Cristiano Ronaldo as the Spanish League's top goal scorer with 30 targets each. In addition, Messi became all-time hat-trick leader for Spanish clubs in official games, with 32 hat tricks in total. Besides, Messi also became the all-time hat trick record in League games, getting 24 and passing Cristiano Ronaldo's 23.

First half goals from Messi and Neymar kept Barça top of the Spanish League table, but with Rayo down to ten men for the last half hour, it could and perhaps should have been a bigger win for the league leaders. But they maintained their unbeaten record and have still to concede a league goal. Luis Enrique rang the changes in his selection for the game, with Piqué and Bartra starting at the heart of defence and Mathieu filling in at left back, with Mascherano and Jordi Alba both benched. In the middle, Xavi was handed another start alongside Iniesta and Busquets, while Munir got the nod over Pedro up front. Barça looked none the worse for the rotations though, as they began brightly against a Rayo team who made it clear from the off that they were prepared to go toe to toe with the league leaders.

Three days ahead of their trip to Manchester, Barça put on a sparkling performance to reaffirm their top spot in the Spanish League with a 6-0 win over Rayo on Saturday evening. Adriano, Messi (2), Alexis, Pedro and Neymar scored the goals in the win. Two first half goals opened the door and after the break the chances and goals just kept coming. Rayo refused to park the bus though and despite the obvious gap in class between them and their hosts, the Madrid team stuck firm to their own attacking style and the game opened up with both teams playing the ball out from the back and pressing high up the pitch. Martino gave the crowd something else to cheer, bringing on Neymar after his month long injury lay off on 61 minutes.

After 29 days, the Brazilian player has finally managed to put his ankle injury behind him. After getting injured against Getafe, Neymar has missed eight official matches. The Brazilian superstar has been training with the squad since Monday, but only today was it finally confirmed that he would be fit to play, if picked, against Rayo Vallecano at the Camp Nou on Saturday evening. Neymar has played 25 games this season, scoring 11 goals. During his time away from duty, Neymar Jr has celebrated his first birthday as a Barça player, visited the club museum and appeared on the cover of Japan’s ‘Zone’ magazine.

Three goals from Pedro, one from Cesc and another great Valdés performance give Barça three more points at the Spanish League campaign. Valdés stopped his second penalty in two games when the scores were just 0-1.It was an even enough first half, with Rayo making some good early chances.Two minutes into the second half, Barça were ahead after Pedro got his second.That made it five wins from five, with next up Real Sociedad at the Camp Nou on Tuesday.

Pautasso was speaking to the press in the place of Tata Martino, who has returned to Argentina for a brief trip following the death of his father. FC Barcelona’s Assistant manager expects Rayo to attack and take risks is a wide open Spanish League match at Vallecas on Saturday. Jorge Pautasso added that the new coaching team are looking to get Barça players generating pressure like they used to. Tata Martino already made it clear that he is not here to change FC Barcelona’s way of playing and Pautasso reiterated the point: “we’ll never take the style away, we have come here to add to, not take away from, what Barça has done so well in recent years. If things go bad for a while and we drop back and regroup, that doesn’t mean we’re playing on the counter attack”.

Barça beat Rayo Vallecano in a great game at the Camp Nou on Sunday evening, in which the Messi-Villa combination was the highlight for the hosts. FC Barcelona made a number of changes form the game against AC Milan and Rayo showed they were prepared to go toe to toe with Jordi Roura’s side. The Catalans finished 13 points in front again at the top of the Spanish League’s table.

FC Barcelona laid down the law in Vallecas with a 0-5 win thanks to goals from Villa, Messi (2), Xavi and Cesc, after a pretty well balanced start. This way, the Catalan club stretch their best ever start to a season.

Ahead of the trip to Rayo’s stadium, FC Barcelona’s Manager praised Paco Jémez’s work as coach and warned: “they won’t just sit back and wait for us – they’ll go toe to toe with us”. Despite last season’s 0-7 win, Vilanova expressed his caution, believing: “this will be a very tough game”.

Goals from Messi (2), Alexis, Keita, Pedro (2) and Thiago gave Barça a record win at Vallecas in a game the Catalans totally dominated. Further good news for FC Barcelona was the return of Ibrahim Afellay after his long injury layoff.

Barça stormed to victory against Rayo Vallecano with goals from Alexis (2), Villa and Messi, and have now scored 34 goals to no reply in home fixtures. This victory shows that FC Barcelona’s Spanish League campaign is very much alive.