How will Barcelona line up against Rayo Vallecano in their La Liga home finale?

After a comfortable win away to Almería in midweek, Barcelona return to Catalonia for their final home game of 2023-24 as they welcome Rayo Vallecano to the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium for the penultimate round of the La Liga season on Sunday evening.

Barça are only one win away from officially clinching second place with a game to spare, and a victory this weekend will provide the insurance of a reported €10 million in additional prize money to use in what should be a very busy summer window. This could very well be the final home game for quite a few Barça players, and maybe even Xavi Hernández could be coaching in front of the home fans for the last time if you believe the latest rumors.

Here’s how we think Xavi will line up his troops for Sunday’s battle.

Defense

Xavi rotated his squad in midweek and has a chance to give another day off to all of his big-name senior players in next week’s season finale away to Sevilla, but they must do their homework on Sunday first and we think the coach will select a strong side to guarantee a win against a struggling Rayo outfit.

At the back the team might be without Ronald Araujo again, who has now missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury and will probably not be fit in time with the short turnaround between games this week. Héctor Fort played very well at left-back in midweek, but we think the youngster will return to the bench in favor of João Cancelo, with Jules Kounde, Pau Cubarsí and Iñigo Martínez completing the back four.

Midfield

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Ilkay Gündogan is back after serving a suspension in midweek and will return to his usual midfield position, though he might be in a more defensive role in this one if Xavi decides to stick with the hot hand and give another start to Fermín López, who scored the winning goals against Almería and deserves to continue playing from the get-go.

If Gündogan and Fermín are indeed starting there’s only one spot left with three possible options: Pedri, captain Sergi Roberto and Andreas Christensen, and we think the Dane will return to the starting XI as the holding midfielder with Pedri and Roberto rotated out.

Attack

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Lamine Yamal played all 90 minutes in the last two games, and it would be a concern to see the teenager start a third straight match in a span of six days, so we think he’ll be rotated out of the side and his spot on the right wing will go to Raphinha, who didn’t start on Thursday perhaps so he could be ready to take Yamal’s place in this one.

Robert Lewandowski will lead the line once again and could be playing his last home game for the club, and if Yamal is indeed rested with Raphinha in his place there will be a spot open on the left wing. Ferran Torres started but didn’t play well there in midweek, so we think Xavi will give João Félix a rare start in this one.

Possible XI: Ter Stegen; Kounde, Cubarsí, Iñigo, Cancelo; Fermín, Christensen, Gündogan; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Félix (4-3-3)

How do you think Barcelona should line up against Rayo Vallecano? Let us know your thoughts, predictions and teams in the comments below!