Huesca vs Rayo Vallecano Predictions

This is a huge occasion for the small town of Huesca which will host top flight football for the first time on Friday night. After some hasty renovation works to get their tiny stadium up to something like the standard required in La Liga, they finally get to play a home game, having started the season with three on the road. Their opponents are Rayo Vallecano, who have big stadium problems of their own.

Their home has been indefinitely closed due to safety concerns and their most recent match against Athletic Bilbao had to be postponed. As a result they’ve only played two games so far, losing them both and it’s three weeks since they’ve last played a match. That’s hardly ideal so early in the season and to make matters worse they are the only team in the division yet to pick up a point.

They can at least take some encouragement from the fact they are playing a team that conceded eight in their most recent game. Huesca somewhat naively decided to have a bit of a go at Camp Nou and ended up on the wrong end of an 8-2 thumping. However 4 points is still an excellent return for them after their opening 3 matches, especially given they were all on the road.

Their survival prospects may hinge on their ability to make the Estadio El Alcoraz a tough place for visiting teams to go. This match gives them a good opportunity to make a winning start at home and their confidence won’t have taken too much of a battering by that heavy loss in Barcelona. Leo Franco’s men have shown plenty of attacking intent and have scored twice in all three matches so far this term. There’s no reason to think they won’t play in anything other than a positive way again here.

They do look the more likely winners as there could be some real rust to shake off for Rayo, given their long wait for a fixture. They don’t have many internationals in their ranks so match sharpness could be an issue and the doubts around when their stadium may open will be making life pretty tough for the players.

However there’s certainly reason to expect them to get on the scoresheet here. They actually created a few chances away to Atletico Madrid in their last match and were unlucky to lose the game and that should be the case again here against a much weaker Huesca side, that is clearly willing to take risks. It promises to be a fairly open contest and backing Both Teams to Score appeals, a bet that has landed in all of Huesca’s last 7 matches including friendlies.

Going for Huesca & Both Teams to Score also looks good and it would certainly be wrong to judge this Huesca side purely on their heavy loss in Barcelona.