Girona vs Rayo Vallecano Prediction: Another H2H yellow for Lopez

The 2025/26 La Liga season starts on Friday, and it's Girona and Rayo Vallecano who will open up at the former's Estadio Municipal de Montilivi (18:00 BST, Premier Sports 2).

Below are my Girona vs Rayo Vallecano predictions, complete with all the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Girona will be hoping for a better season this time around after finishing 16th in 2024/25, narrowly avoiding relegation.

Loanees Arthur Melo, Arnaut Danjuma, Bryan Gil and Oriol Romeu have all returned to their parent clubs, but Vitor Reis (Manchester City) and Thomas Lemar (Atletico Madrid) have both joined on temporary deals ahead of the upcoming campaign.

Football Odds

Lemar's teammate at Atletico, Axel Witsel, has joined on a free to add some much-needed experience and steel to a side that shipped 60 goals last season, with only relegated clubs Real Valladolid (90) and Las Palmas (61) conceding more times.

The new signings could all start Friday's opening game, but Donny van de Beek (Achilles), Abel Ruiz (thigh) and Ricard Artero (ankle) are all ruled out through injury.

Rayo Vallecano, meanwhile, will be hopeful for a repeat of last season, when they finished eighth and secured qualification to the Uefa Conference League.

Ahead of their upcoming European campaign, Los Franjirrojos have signed Argentine goalkeeper Augusto Batalla and Italian defender Luiz Felipe, while bringing in Dutch defender Jozhua Vertrouwd and Spanish midfielder Gerard Gumbau on loan, the latter for the second time in as many seasons.

Today's Football Fixtures

Friday's visitors have fewer injury issues, with only Ghanaian defender Abdul Mumin (knee) confirmed to be missing in Girona.

Girona vs Rayo Vallecano Odds

The hosts are 13/10 (43.5%) to kick off the new campaign with a win, with Rayo 9/4 (30.8%) and the draw 11/5 (31.3%).

Girona's 11-goal leading marksman last season, Cristhian Stuani (7/4), heads the anytime goalscorer market, with Sergio Camello (11/4) first up for Rayo.

Both Teams to Score - Yes @ 10/11

Last season's corresponding fixture finished goalless, but the return fixture earlier this year (January 26) saw both teams get on the scoresheet, as Rayo came from a goal down to win 2-1.

Rayo ended the campaign joint-seventh in the La Liga BTTS standings as 58% (22) of their 38 league games saw both teams strike, while Girona were 12th with 53% (20).

Despite finishing 16th, only eight clubs scored more goals than Girona (44), whose defence really let them down.

Clean sheets in their first couple of summer friendlies will have instilled a degree of confidence into the Blanquivermells, but just one in their next four followed, and they conceded three goals in the first 23 minutes of their 3-2 defeat to Napoli last Saturday.

Rayo, meanwhile, have been in good goalscoring form, netting 10 goals across their last three warm-up games, the latest of which was a 3-0 victory over Premier League newboys Sunderland, although that was eight days after a 3-2 loss to EFL Championship side West Bromwich Albion.

One might expect a cagey contest in La Liga's opening game on Friday, and while I don't expect either team to go gung-ho in the opening stages, both sides will back themselves to pose problems for the other.

The first goal of the last head-to-head was only struck in the 58th minute, with the second and third scored in the 80th and 83rd, so even if we see a slow start, expect things to heat up in the latter stages.

Player to Receive a Card - Unai Lopez (RAY) @ 21/10

Unai Lopez was Rayo's second-most indisciplined player last season, after Pathe Ciss, who received 12 yellow cards in La Liga.

In the same competition, Lopez was cautioned nine times and shown one red. Two of the Spanish midfielder's yellows came against Girona, despite him only starting the home game.

Lopez has now picked up 18 cards (17 yellow, one red) across the last two league campaigns, and prior to 2024/25, had gone four straight games against Girona making 3+ fouls.

At 21/10, he's a decent price to back for a third consecutive card in this fixture.

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