In the battle of the domestic versus European surprise, Rayo Vallecano will be hosting Villarreal in a potentially key match for the guests. With that said, it’s a good time to check out our La Liga odds series, which includes our Rayo-Villarreal prediction and pick we have laid out below.

Rayo Vallecano must be incredibly happy with how this season has gone on. They are completely safe from relegation and enter the final few weeks content with the 12th place they are occupying. Still, they will definitely look to further improve upon this amazing season they are having. Villarreal, after a heroic attempt at overturning the 2-0 deficit versus Liverpool, now have to fight for their place in Europe next season. They are currently seventh, which is a place in the Europa Conference League, but Villarreal will need some good results by the end of the season to secure this.

Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Rayo-Villarreal La Liga odds:

La Liga Odds: Rayo-Villarreal Odds

Rayo: (+320)

Villarreal: (-125)

Draw: (+280)

Over: 2.5 (-104)

Under: 2.5 (-116)

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Why Rayo Could Win This Match 

If Villarreal did not have a European campaign as they did, we would be talking about Rayo Vallecano as the Spanish surprise of the season. Usually, clubs that are promoted from the second division struggle and barely stay afloat. On the contrary, Rayo Vallecano have been safe for a while now and they are sitting comfortably at mid-table. That is especially impressive, considering they are a very small club. Their Vallecas stadium only has 14 thousand seats and Rayo come from a suburb of Madrid.

Yet, in their first season back in La Liga, Rayo Vallecano took down some great clubs. They recently beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp and did so by scoring in the 7th minute and holding on to the lead. They also did the same to the Catalans earlier in the season, when Radamel Falcao scored in the 30th minute to secure them the win. Unfortunately for them, Rayo had a very poor spell at the start of 2022 and lost their chance to compete for Europe, but they recovered and have won two in a row now.

This is a talented Rayo Vallecano squad that has created problems for many big teams. Even though they have virtually nothing to play for, their fans will be expecting a strong finish to a surprisingly good season and a great introduction to next season, when Rayo Vallecano can return to being a stable La Liga side for the future.

Why Villarreal Could Win This Match 

The reality of a fairly small club doing well in Europe is that they fall off domestically. That has happened to Villarreal, whose amazing story in Europe captivated many neutrals around the world. Their European campaign finished with the unfortunate 3-2 loss at their Estadio de la Ceramica, but they did score two unanswered goals in the first half that stunned the footballing world. Now, it is back to a fight for European football next season.

Unfortunately for the Yellow Submarine, they cannot enter the fight for Champions League. However, they have a chance to play in the Europa League next season and that is the competition that landed them a Champions League spot this year. With two infinitely tougher games remaining on the schedule after this one, Villarreal must look to win against Rayo and prepare for a huge game versus Real Sociedad.

They have all the talent in the world to beat this Rayo squad and despite playing away, where they are noticeably worse this season, Villarreal needs this win too much to let it escape them. After all, Villarreal did win 2-0 fairly easily in the first game and Rayo are effectively not playing for anything right now, so if there was ever a chance for easy, but much-needed points, this is it.

Final Rayo-Villarreal Prediction & Pick 

Despite Rayo's surprisingly good season, Villarreal just needs this way too much for this game to go in any other direction. They have too much talent and they will get this all-important win, so the Yellow Submarine can have a chance to really challenge the sixth-placed Real Sociedad in their next game. Thus, our final Rayo-Villarreal prediction is a Villarreal win at the Vallecas stadium.

Final Rayo-Villarreal Pick: Villarreal (-125)