High-flying Real Betis will be looking to return to winning ways in Spain's top flight when they continue their campaign away to basement side Levante on Sunday afternoon.
Betis, who are third in the table, suffered a 2-0 loss to Villarreal in the league last weekend, while Levante will enter the contest off the back of a 3-0 defeat at Getafe.
Match preview
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Levante suffered their 13th defeat of the 2021-22 La Liga campaign on February 4, losing 3-0 at Getafe, to remain rooted to the bottom of the division, boasting just 11 points from 22 matches.
Alessio Lisci's side have only won once in the league this season, which came at home to Mallorca on January 8, and they are 12 points from the safety of 17th position, so it is going to take a huge effort in the final months of the campaign to retain their status at this level of football.
Levante have been present in the top flight since 2017, finishing 15th, 15th, 12th and 14th in their last four campaigns, but they have found it difficult to compete this term.
Indeed, the strugglers have conceded 46 league goals this season, which is comfortably the worst record in the division, and they have shipped 18 goals in their last six league fixtures.
The Frogs have lost their last two league matches against Betis, meanwhile, but recorded a 4-3 victory over the Seville outfit when the pair last locked horns in Valencia in December 2020.
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Betis are enjoying an excellent La Liga campaign, boasting 40 points from their 23 matches, which has left them in third spot in the table, four points ahead of fifth-placed Atletico Madrid.
Manuel Pellegrini's side are also in the knockout round of the Europa League, with Zenit St Petersburg their opponents over two legs this month, while they are bidding to reach the Copa del Rey final and beat Rayo Vallecano 2-1 in the first leg of their semi-final on Wednesday night.
Betis suffered a disappointing 2-0 home loss to Villarreal in La Liga last weekend, but they have won six of their last eight matches in all competitions and will be the strong favourites to secure another three points here.
Pellegrini's team are entering an extremely important run of games, as they will face Zenit twice in the Europa League, in addition to Mallorca and Sevilla in La Liga, before opening March with the second leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final at home to Rayo Vallecano.
Betis actually have the second-best away record in La Liga this term, picking up 20 points from 11 matches, while they will be facing a Levante side with the second-worst home record, collecting just nine points from 11 games.
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Team News
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Levante will be without the services of Shkodran Mustafi, Sergio Postigo and Jose Campana this weekend through injury, while Roger Marti is absent through suspension.
The home side will be boosted by the return of Jose Luis Morales from a suspension, though, and the attacker could start alongside Roberto Soldado in the final third of the field.
Martin Caceres is also in line for a spot at the back due to Levante's injury problems, while Son could take the place of Marc Pubill at right-back for Sunday's encounter.
As for Betis, Claudio Bravo and Martin Montoya will miss the match through injury, while Sergio Canales and Victor Camarasa are unlikely to be available for selection.
There will be a couple of changes from the side that started against Rayo Vallecano in the Copa del Rey, with Hector Bellerin and German Pezzella likely to return to the back four.
Cristian Tello could also benefit from Canales's absence to feature alongside Nabil Fekir and Juanmi, while Borja Iglesias might retain his spot in attack despite pressure from Willian Jose.
Levante possible starting lineup:
Fernandez; Son, Vezo, Caceres, Clerc; De Frutos, Radoja, Pepelu, Bardhi; Soldado, Morales
Real Betis possible starting lineup:
Silva; Bellerin, Pezzella, Ruiz, Moreno; Rodriguez, Carvalho; Tello, Fekir, Juanmi; Iglesias
We say: Levante 0-2 Real Betis
Betis will be desperate to return to winning ways in La Liga after their loss against Villarreal, and we are struggling to back against the visitors here. Levante seem to be heading down to the Segunda Division and could suffer their 14th league defeat of the campaign against Betis this weekend.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Real Betis win with a probability of 50.04%. A win for Levante had a probability of 26.44% and a draw had a probability of 23.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Real Betis win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.6%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (9.06%) and 0-2 (7.93%). The likeliest Levante win was 2-1 (6.64%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.97%). The actual scoreline of 2-4 was predicted with a 1.5% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Real Betis would win this match.
