🏏 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 18:30 CEST
Villarreal CF
vs
Levante UD
4-1-2-1-2 vs 4-3-3
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- Sixteenth-placed Villarreal (five points from six games, 1-2-3, 10 scored and 11 conceded) host 17th-placed Levante (five points from five, 1-2-2, 7 for and 9 against) in a genuine bottom-half six-pointer. Elche are also on five points, Valencia on four and Malaga on three, so with leaders Barcelona already on 21 points from seven, this is a fixture about survival arithmetic rather than ambition. Levante still hold a game in hand.
- Villarreal drew 2-2 at Atletico Madrid in round two, then lost three in a row: 1-0 at Alaves, 3-2 at home to Deportivo and 2-1 at home to Betis. The slide was halted with a 3-1 win at bottom club Malaga in round six. The pattern is clear enough - their damage has been done at home, and fixing that is the priority.
- Levante swing wildly between extremes. They dismantled Betis, now fourth, 5-2 at home in round three, but were beaten 3-0 at Espanyol on the opening day and 4-2 at home by Barcelona in round five. In between they ground out goalless draws away at Osasuna and Malaga. Seven goals scored and nine conceded in five matches understates just how different they look week to week.
- The sharpest subplot sits in the Levante line-up: their entire central defence used to belong to Villarreal. Aissa Mandi, the 34-year-old Algeria international who came through at Reims and spent five seasons at Betis, played here before moving on; his partner Dela, 27, arrived via Real Madrid Castilla and the Villarreal B side. Forward Thiago Cruz, 22, is another Villarreal academy product, and midfielder Dani Requena, also 22, waits on the bench with the same background.
- Villarreal's 4-1-2-1-2 against Levante's 4-3-3 makes central congestion the key battleground. Nathan Saliba, a 22-year-old Canada international, screens the back four, with Tajon Buchanan - formerly of Inter and Club Brugge - and 189cm Senegal international Pape Gueye, ex-Marseille and Sevilla, ahead of him. Levante answer with Oriol Rey, a La Masia graduate who builds from the left foot, and Real Sociedad product Jon Ander Olasagasti.
- Villarreal will fancy their front pair. Ayoze Perez, 33, brings Premier League mileage from Newcastle and Leicester and finished as the club's top scorer with 19 goals in his first season here. Beside him is 22-year-old Morocco international Ilias Akhomach, a Barcelona academy graduate who banked La Liga minutes on loan at Rayo Vallecano and cuts in off the right on his left foot.
- Villarreal's defence is still bedding in. Renato Veiga, the 25-year-old Portugal international signed from Chelsea for a club-record fee, is a left-footed hybrid comfortable at centre-back, left-back or in midfield. On the other flank, 22-year-old Alberto Freeman stands 188cm and arrived in Europe after being named MLS Young Player of the Year at Orlando City. Eleven goals conceded in six games says the understanding is not there yet.
- Both goalkeepers are seasoned veterans. Peter Gulacsi, 36, the Hungary international, made over 360 appearances in 11 years at RB Leipzig, including 296 Bundesliga games and 96 clean sheets, before joining in August 2026 on a two-year deal worth around two million euros. Mat Ryan, 34, has been Australia's number one through spells at Brighton, Arsenal, Real Sociedad, Valencia and Lens.
- If the game stays tight, the benches matter. Villarreal hold back 34-year-old captain Gerard Moreno, a club legend with more than 120 La Liga goals and a key figure in their Europa League triumph, alongside Georges Mikautadze, who pushed for the Golden Boot at EURO 2024, Nicolas Pepe, once an 80-million-euro club-record signing at Arsenal, and 2021 Europa League winner Juan Foyth. Levante's alternatives skew young, led by 19-year-old academy winger Paco Cortes.