Sixth-placed Levante will be aiming to return to winning ways when they tackle Athletic Bilbao, a team ended the first part of the league campaign with a home defeat to Zaragoza.

Levante have done brilliantly to prove they are not a one-season wonder, having not only remained in the race for European places in La Liga, but also qualified for the Europa League knockout stages.

The club from Valencia may have lost to Rayo Vallecano in their final fixture in 2012, but they, nonetheless, stayed in top 6 and, therefore, have every reason to be optimistic about their chances this season.

Home fixture against out-of-form Athletic Bilbao could prove to be a very good opportunity to cement their place in La Liga top 6, but odds of 2.40 (7/5) offered at Stan James suggest the hosts will not have an easy job.

While sharing spoils with Atletico Madrid and losing to Barcelona and Real Madrid, Levante have won every home match against teams outside the top 3.

Javier Barkero is likely to miss out through a knee injury, but Juanfran Garcia has resumed full training and will be in contention.

Obafemi Martins is suspended after picking up five yellow cards, while Pedro Rios and Dariusz Dudka remain on the sidelines.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Munua – Lell, Ballesteros, Navarro, Juanfran – Iborra, Diop – Michel, El Zhar, Ruben Garcia – Angel.

While Athletic had been playing great football last term, they ended up missing out on two major trophies and that left a bad taste in their mouth.

Even so, it was pretty surprising to see los Leones slip into La Liga danger zone in the opening exchanges, although they have shown some improvement since.

The Javi Martinez and Fernando Llorente transfer sagas certainly played a part in the disappointing start, but it appears Marcelo Bielsa’s side are slowly returning to the right track.

Back to back victories over Celta Vigo and Mallorca helped the players restore some of the lost confidence, while the winter break gave the team enough time to recover from home defeat to Zaragoza.

With Athletic winning three of their last five matches on the road, while only losing to Real and Barca, los Leones look a good bet to triumph in Valencia, with BetVictor paying 3.30 (23/10).

Fernando Amorebieta and Ander Iturraspe have both resumed full training, but Inigo Perez and Ion Aurtenetxe both miss out.

Probable starting line-up (4-1-4-1): Iraizoz – Iraola, Ekiza, Amorebieta, De Marcos – Gurpegui – Susaeta, Herrera, Muniain, Ibai Gomez – Aduriz.