Elche vs Levante Prediction - Who Will Win The Comunidad Valenciana Derby?

Next Friday, a relegation threatened Elche side will take on Levante at Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero for round 35 of Liga BBVA on what will be the second Comunidad Valenciana Derby in under three weeks time for the home side.

After last Friday’s defeat at Vicente Calderón against the league leaders (Atlético), Elche putted themselves into a slightly dangerous position, close to the relegation line. Despite the defeat, Los Franjiverdes managed to put up a quality display and forced Atlético Madrid to work extra hard last Friday’s night. At the end of the match, Fran Escribá praised his players’ work and claimed that his team will lift their heads and prepare the next match being confident of a positive result. Next Friday’s match against Levante is in fact a great opportunity for Elche to continue their good home form. The last time Elche were defeated at Martínez Valero was back in December against Málaga.

For next Friday’s derby, Fran Escribá will not be able to count on the Romanian international Cristian Sapunaru, who is suspended, while he is also not yet certain if will be able to count on the forwards Manu del Moral and Álvaro Giménez and on the team’s captain Edu Albácar, who are all sidelined due to injury.

Elche’s next opponents Levante are also far from being enjoying a good moment at La Liga. The Comunidad Valenciana's side has only managed to win one of their last eight matches and last Saturday they conceded a home draw against the relegation-threatened Getafe, on what was a very poor and uninteresting match. Despite the match‘s outcome, Levante’s manager, Joaquin Caparrós, told the media that he is pleased to have 41 points at this point of the season. Levante are comfortably sitting at the 9th place of the table, four points behind their neighbours of Valencia and eleven points behind Villarreal, who occupy the seventh place.

For next Friday’s clash, Joaquin Caparrós will probably not be to count on the Spanish centre back David Navarro, who got himself injured on last week’s match against Getafe, and on the skilled Austrian midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz, who lost the team’s recent matches due to injury.

When both sides met at Estadi Ciutat de Valencia back in December, Les Granotes won 2-1, thanks to two goals from the Spanish forward David Barral. For next Friday’s match, however, history might not repeat itself since despite being on a complicated position of the table, Elche are very strong when playing at home and are currently putting up far more better performances than their rivals.

Elche

Stats: W-8 L-15 D-11

Recent Form - DDWLL

Levante

Stats: W-10 L-12 D-11

Recent Form - DLWLLD

Possible Line-ups

Elche (4-2-3-1) – M. Herrera - Suárez - Botía - Pellegrín - Cisma - R. Pérez - C. Sánchez - C. Gil - Coro - J. Márquez - C. Herrera

Levante (4-4-2) – K.Navas - Vyntra - Rodas - Juanfran - Adoua - Simao - Diop - R. Garcia - Casadesús - Xumetra - D. Barral

Prediction

Elche 1 Levante 0