RCD Espanyol vs Levante Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Dec 05, 2015 @ 04:16 am

Next Monday, 7th of December 2015, Espanyol will measure forces with Levante, for the second time in just four days’ time at Estadi Cornellà-El Prat for Round 14 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

Last Thursday’s night, Espanyol visited Levante at the Comunidad Valenciana for the first-leg of the 1/16 of the Copa del Rey and pulled off what might turn out to be a valuable 1-1 draw. Mamadou Sylla opened the score for the Catalunya team on minute 68’ but 15 minutes later Roger Martin clawed the equalizer for the home side. It was a very even match and both sides had some good opportunities to score at least one or two more goals.

Back in La Liga, Espanyol are currently going through a less impressive moment with just one win in their last five matches and occupy the 12th place of the league table with 16 points in 13 matches played so far. Last weekend, Los Periquitos were defeated during their visit to Vincent Calderón by 1-0, in a match during which they struggled to cope with Atlético Madrid’s attacking game. An early goal by the usual suspect Antoine Griezmann was enough to hurt Espanyol with their seventh defeat of the season.

The Senegalese midfielder Pape Diop is currently sidelined with a sprained ankle and he is in doubt for Espanyol’s next outing against Levante.

As for Levante, the Comunidad Valenciana team has only won twice so far this season, the second of which took place three weeks ago at El Molinón against Sporting Gijón. Their manager, Joan Francesc Ferrer Sicilia, best known as Rubi, has a Herculean task on his hands, but he needs time to pass his ideas to the players, something that wasn’t conceded to him at Valladolid last season, from where he ended up by being sacked back in July.

Last weekend, Levante did not manage to overcome Real Betis at home and ended up conceding their seventh defeat of the season in a match where both teams had a player sent off, although Juanfran was not even on the pitch when he got his red card.

Juanfran, who is currently suspended, Nikos Karabelas and Angel Trujillo, both recovering from their respective injuries, will miss out there.

Espanyol

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - DLWWL

Levante

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - DLWDL

Possible Line-ups

Espanyol (4-2-3-1) - Pau - Lopez - Gonzalez - Roco - Fuentes- Canas - Abraham - Alvarez - Perez - Asensio - Caicedo

Levante (4-3-3) - Ruben - Lopez - Navarro - Feddal - Tono - Verza - Simão - Camarasa - Morales - Garcia - Deyverson

Injury List / Suspended Players

Espanyol - Pape Diop (in doubt)

Levante - Karabelas (inj) - Angel Trujillo (inj) - Juanfran (sus)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions