Barcelona has a great opportunity here to make another step to win the title.

Rayo Vallecano has confirmed that they don't have any target anymore. With only one victory in their last 10 games, Europe positions are already 6 points above and isn’t a target for them. That’s normal: Rayo is a team with the target of avoiding relegation and after a fantastic first half of the season, they decreased their level and played relaxed because the target was done and the motivation was too low. It’s the same that happened in previous seasons: a very strong start, target done, and awful second half/end of the season due to the lack of motivation.

And this isn’t only results, also performances. Their intensity has decreased a lot, in attack they have much less ideas/goals and in defense are conceding much more than usual (11 goals in the last 6 games).

Against top teams they have been outplayed, losing all games recently: 2:1 Real Sociedad, 1:2 Atletico, 0:2 Real Sociedad, 1:2 Betis…

Furthermore, like all relegation/small teams, they have a very short squad so will struggle a lot in the midweek rounds. Only have two options: use the starters which will be tired after the weekend game, or make rotations and put reserves whose level is much worse. Iraola is a coach who has been using only 12-13 players during the whole season, so their bench is lacking competitiveness and chemistry.

On the other hand, Barcelona is showing a crazy superiority in La Liga. They have conceded only 9 goals in 30 games - one each 3.33 games. Are performing very well, with the ability of controlling all games from the defense - it’s almost impossible to score them a goal, and in the whole year 2023 in La Liga only two teams managed to score them a goal in 15 games: Betis and Madrid, and both goals were own goals.

They have confidence after the weekend's victory against Atletico, who was the best team in the league right now. Their next fixture will be difficult against Betis, so the victory here is pretty important. They are close to winning the title and surely want to do it as soon as possible to celebrate it, especially after Real Madrid’s defeat yesterday.

Busquets is out for suspension but Xavi has recovered some key players last week: Pedri and de Jong; so he can make some changes to keep the team fresh and competitive.

In this midweek rounds the teams with a stronger squad (made to play 2-3 competitions at same time) have a huge advantage against teams with short squads (relegation sides like Rayo), because they can make some changes and don't decrease the level. Furthermore, Rayo’s performances lately are very poor due to the lack of targets, while Barcelona is in amazing form in La Liga.

Barcelona will control the match, are totally able to keep the goal to nil again while in attack surely will have some chances seeing the poor defensive level of Rayo recently, lacking concentration in many actions.

巴塞罗那在这里有一个很好的机会，可以向冠军迈出又一步。

巴列卡诺已经明确了他们没有任何目标了。在过去的10场比赛中只赢了一场，欧洲排名低6分，不是他们的目标。这很正常：巴列卡诺是一支以保级为目标的球队，在上半赛季表现出色之后，他们降低了水平并放松了比赛，因为目标已经完成并且动力太低。这与前几个赛季的情况相同：开局非常强劲，目标完成，但由于缺乏动力，下半赛季/赛季末表现不佳。

他们的强度下降了很多，在进攻中他们的想法/进球少了很多，而在防守中失球比平时多得多（过去 6 场比赛中有 11 个进球）。

在对阵顶级球队时，他们通常被击败，最近输掉了所有比赛：2:1 皇家社会，1:2 马德里竞技，0:2 皇家社会，1:2贝蒂斯… 此外，像所有降级/小球队一样，他们的阵容非常单薄，因此在周中的比赛中会很挣扎。只有两个选择：使用主力阵容周末比赛后会感到疲倦，或者进行轮换并派上水平更差的替补。伊拉奥拉是一个整个赛季只使用了12-13名球员的教练，所以他们的替补席缺乏竞争力和化学反应。

反观巴萨，正在西甲展现出疯狂的优势。他们在 30 场比赛中只丢了 9 球——每 3.33 场比赛丢一球。表现非常好，有能力从防守端控制所有比赛——让他们进球几乎是不可能的，在整个 2023 年的西甲联赛中，只有两支球队在 15 场比赛中为他们进球：贝蒂斯和马德里，而且两个进球都是乌龙球。

在周末战胜马竞之后，他们充满了信心，马竞是目前联盟中最好的球队。他们的下一场比赛将很难对阵贝蒂斯，所以这里的胜利非常重要。他们离冠军很近，当然想尽快夺冠来庆祝，尤其是在昨天输给皇马之后。

布斯克茨停赛，但哈维上周迎回了一些关键球员：佩德里和德容；所以他可以做出一些改变，让球队保持新鲜感和竞争力。

在周中的轮次中，拥有更强阵容的球队（同时参加 2-3 场比赛）在对抗阵容较短的球队（像 Rayo 这样的保级球队）时具有巨大的优势，因为他们可以做出一些改变并且不会受到影响。此外，由于缺乏目标，巴列卡诺最近的表现非常糟糕，而巴萨在西甲的状态非常出色。

巴萨将控制比赛，完全有能力再次将对手进球锁定为零，而巴列卡诺的防守很可能会出现问题。