(Football news) Barcelona had a difficult couple of weeks where they lost 4-0 to Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey semi final at home and then later had goalless draws against Girona and Getafe in La Liga. On the weekend they did bounce back with a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid. Now Barcelona have an opportunity to go 14 points clear of arch rivals Real Madrid on top of La Liga as they play away against Rayo Vallecano. Xavi will be hoping for a dominant performance that his team hasn’t produced in a while. Barcelona have only the league to focus on so they are likely to play their strongest line-up in each game.

Barcelona will be without Ousmane Dembele, Sergi Roberto and Andreas Christensen who are all injured while Sergio Busquets is also unavailable due to suspension Pedri returned from injury to play 29 minutes at the weekend and he could start this game. Robert Lewandowski hasn’t scored a goal in the last 4 games and his performances have been really underwhelming. This is a good opportunity for him to lead the team to victory in a tough away ground. As for Rayo Vallecano, Radamel Falcao is out with an injury while Santi Comesana is suspended. Alejandro Catena and Alvaro Garcia are back from suspension and should come back into the starting line-up.

The Estadio de Vallecas is one of the toughest away grounds in La Liga and Barcelona will have to be very careful in this game. The league title is pretty much theirs but there are certain players who still have a lot to prove. Barcelona will need to sell a few players in the summer to generate funds so the players who want to stay will be looking to impress Xavi. Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres, Franck Kessie, Jordi Alba, Eric Garcia, Frenkie De Jong and Raphinha are the names who could be on the transfer list in the coming window.

Also read: Atletico Madrid look to cut the gap with Real Madrid down to 2 points