Barcelona will look to keep their second place in La Liga when they travel to Ciutat de Valencia to take on relegation-threatened Levante on Sunday night with kickoff at 22:00 EAT.
Levante have struggled in La Liga this season with the side claiming just four victories from their 30 league matches, while picking up 10 draws and suffering 16 defeats in the process.
However, the Frogs head into match on the back of a hard-fought 2-0 victory against Villarreal in their previous league outing last weekend. It was a much need and vital victory for Allessio Risci’s side as it ended their three-match winless run in La Liga, while moving them to just three points adrift of safety.
They will now look to build on the victory as they hope to climb out of the drop zone, but in their way stands Barcelona who have continued to thrive under their former captain Xavi. However, Levante have are unbeaten in their last three encounters against the Catalans and will draw some confidence from that.
Barcelona have really turned around their campaign under manager Xavi, who has seen his side maintain an unbeaten run in la Liga since the beginning of December last year. The run has seen them climb into the second spot in the standings, level on 57 points with third-placed Atletico Madrid and fourth-placed Sevilla, with a game in hand on both.
However, the Catalans are still 12 points behind league leaders Real Madrid, and it is very difficult to imagine Los Blancos dropping that many points between now and the end of the campaign, so the runners-up spot is the realistic target for Xavi’s side this season.
They have won all their last six top-flight matches and are have been impressive on the road too as they have won four of their last five away matches and they should be confident of extending that run here.
Levante vs Barcelona head to head
Both sides have met in 33 encounters since 2004 with Barcelona claiming 24 victories, while Levante have claimed four victories and there have been five draws.
- Barcelona 3-0 Levante 26/09/21
- Levante 3-3 Barcelona 11/05/21
- Barcelona 1-0 Levante 13/12/20
- Barcelona 2-1 Levante 02/02/20
- Levante 3-1 Barcelona 02/11/19
Home
- Levante 2-0 Villarreal
- Osasuna 3-1 Levante
- Levante 1-1 Espanyol
- Bilbao 3-1 Levante
- Levante 3-0 Elche
Away
- Frankfurt 1-1 Barcelona
- Barcelona 1-0 Sevilla
- Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona
- Galatasaray 1-2 Barcelona
- Barcelona 3-0 Osasuna
Levante team news
Levante will be without Jorge Sebastian, Carlos Clerc, Martin Cacere and Shkodran Mustafi due to injuries.
Barcelona team news
Barcelona will be will be without Samuel Umtiti and Sergino Dest due to injuries, while Sergi Roberto, Ansu Fati, Gerard Pique, Memphis Depay and Luuk De Jong are all doubts.
Prediction and odds
- Barcelona win
- Both sides to score
- Goals over 2.5
