Levante vs Athletic Bilbao - Bilbao Continues the Fight for Securing the 4th Place

Next Monday night, Levante will go head-to-head against Athletic Bilbao at the Estadi Ciutat de Valencia for round 32 of Liga BBVA.

The team from the Comunidad Valenciana bounced back after their home defeat against Real Betis in the middle of last week and grabbed an important victory at Andalusia during their last Monday’s match against Granada. With that victory, Levante have virtually secured a place at the Spanish football top flight next season, although they cannot fully relax for their next Monday’s home match, since they will face one of the best teams of La Liga this season. The team’s manager, Joaquín Caparrós, claimed that after the last match, his team must keep up with the hard work, right until the end of the season, even despite the fact that Levante is saved from relegation this term.

The Spanish head-coach will be able to count on his most important players, since Ivanschitz is fully recovered from his recent injury and he already gave his contribution to the team on their last match against Granada.

Thanks to last Monday’s win, Levante broke a row of a negative results, during which the team was defeated three times and managed to grab a draw from their visit to Barcelona against Espanyol.

As for Athletic Bilbao, next Monday’s match will be tremendously important if they want to secure the 4th place of table. The Basque team are six points ahead of Sevilla and they need a victory to ease some of the pression that has been imposed unto the team recently, after two consecutive matches without a win.

For next Monday’s match, Ernesto Valverde will not count on Carlos Gurpegi, who will be submitted to surgery on his left knee and will surely miss the rest of the season, and on Laporte that has been sent-off during last weekend’s clash against Atlético Madrid.

When both teams went head-to-head last November at San Mamés, the home side won 2-1 with goals from Mikel Rico and Aduriz.

Levante

W-10 L-11 D-10

Recent Form - LLDLW

Athletic Bilbao

W-16 L-7 D-8

Recent Form - DDWDL

Possible Line-ups

Levante (4-2-3-1) – K.Navas - Vyntra - Navarro - Juanfran - Adoua - Simao - Diop - R. Garcia - Casadesús - Ivanschitz - D. Barral

Athletic Bilbao (4-1-4-1) - Iraizoz - Iraola - S. José - Saborit - Iturraspe - Susaeta - De Marcos - Mikel Rico - Muniain - Aduriz

Prediction: Levante 1 Athletic Bilbao 2