Football – Spain – La Liga
Saturday 24th January 2015 – Kickoff: 2100hrs
It’s another visit to El Madrigal as hosts Villarreal take on second from bottom club Levante in their quest for a Champions League spot.
Villarreal strengthened their position of sixth place with a comfortable 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao last weekend, but they know they must keep winning and for Sevilla to slip up if they’re to reduce the current four point deficit on Sevilla.
The hosts are in a strong position though to achieve all three points again tonight as they’re unbeaten in their last nine overall in La Liga which includes ruthless home wins over the struggling teams such as Getafe, Real Sociedad and Deportivo la Coruna as well as an away win at third placed Atletico Madrid.
Possible anytime goalscorers for the hosts are the forward pair of Vietto (8 goals) and Uche (5 goals).
Visitors Levante suffered another setback in their fight against relegation last Sunday when they lost away at fellow strugglers Elche losing by a 1-goal margin which has left them second from bottom in the Spanish top flight.
That result on Sunday means that Levante have now gone seven matches without a win and in fact, they’ve won just twice in the league in their last fourteen matches which were both home wins incidentally (2-1 wins over Almeria and Valencia respectively).
Away from home, Levante’s overall away record reads a dismal 1-4-5 7/16 and it’s also seven matches without success on their travels too, along with failing to score on five occasions to date this term.
This looks like another home win for Villarreal here, but given the very low odds for the straight home win, I’ll back the hosts on the half-time/full-time option which brings us reasonable odds. Villarreal to win perhaps by a 2-0 margin.
Pick: Villarreal HT/FT @ 1.72 bet365
