High-flying Villarreal cemented the third place in the standings as they beat Espanyol away and now it’s back to El Madrigal, which has become a real fortress this season. Levante ended the four-match losing run as they beat Getafe at home, but they now face an uphill task against in-form Villarreal.

Can anyone beat Villarreal at El Madrigal?

This is turning out to be quite a season for Villarreal, with Juan Carlos Garrido’s men impressing on all fronts. After easily qualifying for the Europa League knockout stages, the Yellow Submarine shifted their focus to La Liga and quickly started climbing the standings after some impressive showings, especially at their El Madrigal, where they only dropped two points in 11 La Liga games, winning most of them with few goals to spare. After his squad was hit with injuries, the boss decided to sacrifice team’s Copa Del Rey campaign, which proved to be a great decision as Villarreal continued their remarkable league run by beating Real Sociedad at home and Espanyol away. They will now have a great chance to increase their advantage over fourth-placed Valencia seeing they will face one of the worst travelers in La Liga, meaning home win should never come into question.

Brazilian Nilmar returns to the starting line-up after recovering from injury, but Marco Ruben, Marcos Senna, Juan Carlos and Angel Lopez remain sidelined.

Levante escaped from rock bottom

After gaining promotion from Segunda, the club management mostly brought players with a wealth of La Liga experience, but probably didn’t realize that the majority of new signings was well past their prime. As a result, Levante started the season with three straight defeats and while they would occasionally show glimpses of quality, the team remained deep in the relegation zone. Luis Garcia’s side finally managed to escape from the bottom of the standings as they beat Getafe at home, proving their home form is not that bad at all, but problems arise when they leave Valencia. Having lost 8 out of 11 away games this season, Levante clearly have no reason to feel optimistic before the clash with one of the best home sides in the league.

Team’s top scorer Felipe Caicedo is suspended, which only adds to the problems, while Jefferson Montero is not allowed to face his parent club as he is on loan from Villarreal.

Verdict

Looking at Villarreal’s latest showings and their impeccable home record, home win looks like a safe bet here, especially as Levante are awful on the travels and are missing their best player in Felipe Caicedo. Villarreal are expected to record a big win here, so my advice is to back them with -1.5 Asian handicap.

Our prediction: Villarreat to beat -1.5 Asian handicap

Odds: 1.77 (31/40)

Bookmaker: Bet365