Valencia vs Levante 15/04/19

15 April 2019

Sunday’s La Liga action concludes with a local derby between Valencia and Levante at the Estadio de Mestalla as the hosts hope to bounce back from a shock 2-0 road defeat to Rayo Vallecano last time out.

Last weekend’s loss was Valencia’s first La Liga failure since early January, and it was also the second time the Bats have conceded over 1.5 goals per LL match in their last nine league outings. Although they’ve established themselves as a ‘draw specialists’ the hosts have played out just one stalemate in six of their previous LL games (W4, D1, L1), with four of those matches featuring under 2.5 goals. Interestingly, Valencia’s last LL home defeat dates back to early November, after which Marcelino Garcia Toral’s men achieved five wins in ten LL home fixtures. The main reason for Valencia’s success in those ten games has been their impressive backline that has kept a clean sheet in six encounters while restricting their opponents to a maximum of one match goal in the remaining four. The one thing Marcelino has to work on is Valencia’s mediocre attacking output that has seen them scored one goal or less in five of their last eight home games across all competitions.

Meanwhile, sitting 15th in the table, the visitors are still frantically looking over their shoulders as they have a three-point lead over 18th-placed Villarreal with seven LL fixtures left to go. It will be a daunting prospect for the Granotas to halt a four-game losing streak against Valencia at this venue considering they are winless in their last seven LL meetings (D3, L4). Another potential worry for Paco López is that his players have lost seven of their last nine competitive away games (W1, D1, L7), with five of those failures arriving against LL’s top-five sides. What’s more, Levante’s inability to preserve a clean slate has seen them concede at least one goal in all 14 of their previous road clashes across all competitions, allowing 2+ match goals seven times in the process.