🏏 Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:00 CEST
Rayo Vallecano
vs
Deportivo Alavés
4-1-4-1 vs 5-3-2
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Match Preview
- Alavés travel to Vallecas as the early table-toppers, having opened the season with a 3-0 home win over Getafe that left them on three points with a +3 goal difference. Rayo Vallecano begin the night ninth and pointless after a 2-1 defeat away at Sevilla on matchday 1. Barely a week into the campaign, the two sides sit at opposite ends of the early standings.
- Florian Lejeune lines up against one of his former clubs. The 35-year-old Frenchman spent time at Deportivo Alavés before moving on to Newcastle United, Eibar, Villarreal and Manchester City, and now marshals the Rayo back line at 189cm with his aerial presence and reading of the game. How the veteran deals with a side he knows well is one of the night's main threads.
- Rayo's 4-3-3 meets a 4-4-2 from Alavés, and the central numbers should decide who controls the tempo. Rayo field a midfield three of Unai López, an Athletic Bilbao academy graduate now 30, alongside Pathé Ciss and Isi Palazón. Alavés counter with just Antonio Blanco and Pablo Ibáñez inside, betting instead on their wide midfielders to stretch the hosts.
- Rayo's front three is entirely Spanish. Fran Pérez, 23, came through the Valencia academy and thrives on direct one-v-one running from the right. Sergio Camello, 25, an Atlético Madrid youth product, wears the number 10 and specialises in runs in behind. On the left, Jorge de Frutos returns at 29 after three seasons at Levante that brought 112 appearances and 13 goals.
- Alavés pair height with relentless work up front. Toni Martínez, 29 and 187cm, spent four years at FC Porto and offers a genuine target man's hold-up play and penalty-box finishing. Beside him, Lucas Boyé, a 30-year-old Argentine who won the Copa Libertadores with River Plate, leads the press from the front. Their duel with Lejeune and the 190cm Pelayo Fernández will be worth watching.
- The battle to win second balls in midfield could tilt the match. Pathé Ciss, the 32-year-old Senegal international who won the Africa Cup of Nations, screens the Rayo back four and uses his 186cm frame to cover ground. Alavés answer with Antonio Blanco, 26, schooled at Real Madrid Castilla, and Pablo Ibáñez, 27, a Pamplona native who worked his way up through the Osasuna academy.
- Out wide, the duel between Rayo right-back Andrei Rațiu and Alavés winger Abdelkabir Rebbach should be lively. Rațiu, 28 and a Romania international who came through Villarreal B, is at his best overlapping at speed. Rebbach, 28, is a Vitoria-raised Moroccan who is right-footed but cuts in from the left. On the opposite flank, 21-year-old Belgian Jens Vertrouwd, 188cm and left-footed, holds the width.
- Both benches carry weight. Rayo can call on Álvaro García, the 33-year-old, 167cm left winger who holds the club's LaLiga appearance record, and captain Óscar Valentín, a 32-year-old defensive midfielder. Alavés have Denis Suárez, 30, a former Barcelona and Arsenal player, plus La Masia graduate Carles Aleñá, 28, a left-footed playmaker ready to unlock a tight game.
- There is intrigue in goal too. Rayo start Augusto Batalla, the 30-year-old Argentine who came through River Plate's academy and joined via Granada, with Levante-raised Dani Cárdenas on the bench. Alavés turn again to Sivera, 30, a Valencia academy product whose quick reflexes and comfort on the ball helped keep a clean sheet against Getafe on the opening weekend.