An exultant Rayo faces the queen stage: Mallorca and Espanyol

Win, win and win again. El Rayo has taken it literally and continues to collect triumphs, He has six: three in the League (Las Palmas, Alcorcón and Mirandés) and another three in the Cup (Teruel, Haro and Elche). What's more, it hasn't done anything else since a promising 2021 began. This streak has led the Franjirrojos to fourth place in the classification —Has direct promotion to five points— and to the round of 16 of the KO tournament.

In addition, Rayo de Iraola has shown in these last six duels some of its most characteristic qualities, as the solvency behind. He has only conceded four goals and has managed to leave a clean sheet three times Two of them, with Dimitrievski under sticks. In addition, the Vallecanos are showing punch, whether they play with a pure forward (Qasmi), some converted extreme (Baby or Antoñín) or Trejo with a false nine. They have added fourteen goals in this full of victories and average 2.3 goals per game.

It would be necessary to go back to December 2 to find the last defeat of Rayo. And is that after falling against Leganés (1-0), the franjirrojos have come up and have completed a streak of eight games without losing. All this has made Madrilenians are exultant and face their queen stage with optimism, since now two of the heavyweights of the category appear. This Saturday they host Mallorca in Vallecas (4:00 p.m.) and next Sunday 31 they visit Espanyol (4:00 p.m.).

Both commitments will determine the true aspirations of the rayistas, if they can fight for one of the direct promotion spots, currently held by parakeets and vermilions, or their fight is reduced to staying in the playoff positions. Looking back, the red-reds have reason for hope, since they were imposed on both in the first round. The Vallecanos won (0-1, with a goal from Isi) in the league debut of Son Moix and also in the visit of the leader (1-0, Isi again).

“At the level of results, this is our best moment. We have had solidarity and defensive forcefulness, which is what the match against Mirandés has given us. We feel lucky to have the players we have. They are giving it their all. There will be moments in which the results do not accompany and we will have to press, that will be when it will probably cost us the most, “explained Iraola, who highlighted the commitment of his players. Yesterday, in Anduva, He could already count on those who had been positive contacts for COVID: “They came from ten days unemployed. I did not want to risk with them from the beginning and they were able to leave in the second half. That conditioned the line-up.”

Despite the extra-sports storm surge, the Rayo de Iraola has struck down the best streaks of the last decade, as far as consecutive victories are concerned. Has already exceeded five wins Sandoval's team in the 2010-11 season (Xerez, Cartagena, Barcelona B, Numancia and Córdoba) and those of Míchel in 2017-18 (Albacete, Zaragoza, Barcelona B, Tenerife and Granada). In both cases, they achieved it only in league matches and ended up reaping a promotion to First. You would have to go back to 91-92 to find something like this, when they defeated Sabadell, Bilbao Athletic, Betis, Avilés Industrial, Real Madrid B and Racing and they ended up going up. So there is reason to believe …