Champions Real Madrid will be bidding to return to winning ways in Spain’s top flight when they welcome relegation-threatened Levante to Bernabeu on Thursday evening.
Los Blancos, who were crowned champions at the end of April, suffered a 1-0 defeat to rivals Atletico Madrid in the Madrid derby at the weekend, while Levante will enter the match off the back of a 2-1 win over Real Sociedad, which boosted their hopes of avoiding relegation from La Liga. Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti made seven changes to his starting side for the Madrid derby against Atletico, following the team’s Champions League semi-final success over Manchester City last week.
Ancelotti will need to balance resting players and keeping them match fit over the next couple of weeks, and it will be fascinating to see how the Italian uses his squad in their final three games of the La Liga campaign against Levante, Cadiz and Real Betis, especially as the three matches could have a lot riding on them.
Real Madrid have the best home record in Spain’s top flight this term, picking up 40 points from 17 matches, and they will be welcoming a Levante outfit with the fourth-worst away record, but there is no question that it is a bigger match for the visitors, who are battling to stay in the division. The visitors will enter this match off the back of a 2-1 success over Real Sociedad on May 6, with Gonzalo Melero‘s 90th-minute penalty deciding the contest in Valencia.
Alessio Lisci‘s side are currently 19th in the table, five points behind 17th-placed Granada, meaning that they will need to secure three positive results in their final three matches to stand a chance of staying in the league.
After a trip to Madrid, Levante will welcome Alaves on May 15 before finishing their campaign away to Rayo Vallecano on May 22, and the fact that they have picked up four points from their last two games against Valencia and Real Sociedad should mean that confidence is high.
Levante are fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table, but the fact that Real Madrid lost against Atletico will make this a tough match for the visitors, even if Ancelotti’s side are not under any pressure to win. It could be a tight match on Thursday evening, but we are expecting the champions to secure all three points.
Credit: sportsmole.co.uk
