🏏 Wed, 21 Oct 2026 20:00 CEST
Levante UD
vs
Athletic Club
4-4-2 vs 4-2-3-1
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- Levante sit 17th on seven points from eight games (1W-4D-3L), level with 18th-placed Elche and clinging to safety only on goal difference (-4 against -6). They have gone five without a win (D-L-L-D-D), losing 2-4 at home to Barcelona on matchday 5 and 1-3 at Villarreal on matchday 7. Athletic, 11th on nine points with two games in hand, are only two points clear.
- Athletic have scored seven and conceded six in seven league outings. After back-to-back wins at Celta (2-0) and at home to Atletico Madrid (3-0), they have drawn three in a row: 1-1 with Elche, 0-0 with Alaves and 0-0 at Valencia, managing a single goal across those matches. Ernesto Valverde turns to 192cm striker Maroan Sannadi, whose physicality was forged at Alaves and on loan at Barakaldo.
- Both Williams brothers start on the bench for Athletic. Nico, 24, scored in the Euro 2024 final and remains one of Europe's most explosive one-on-one wingers, while 32-year-old captain Inaki holds La Liga's consecutive-appearance record. With Alex Berenguer (31, ex-Torino and Osasuna), Robert Navarro and 22-year-old Louis Jean - a registered defender - behind Sannadi, the brothers are the obvious game-changers if this one stays tight.
- Robert Navarro, 24, takes the central role behind the striker. Schooled at Barcelona, Monaco and Real Sociedad, he set a club-record youngest debut at Monaco and scored 11 goals for Sociedad B under Xabi Alonso. Whether he can turn and face goal between the lines of Levante's 4-4-2 may decide if Athletic finally break their run of one goal in three matches.
- The midfield pairing tells a story of contrasts. Athletic field 22-year-old Mikel Jauregizar, an aggressive ball-winner, alongside 33-year-old Luis de Galarreta, who grafted through Zaragoza, Leganes, Numancia, Las Palmas and Mallorca before returning home in 2023 to become the passing hub. Levante answer with left-footed Jon Ander Olasagasti (26, a Real Sociedad academy product) and the 186cm Dani Requena (22, Villarreal-raised).
- Levante's centre-back pairing spans 16 years. Aissa Mandi, 34, is an Algeria international with five seasons at Real Betis and a spell at Villarreal behind him, and he partners 18-year-old Ifeanyi Ndukwe, who arrived via Austria Vienna and Liverpool's U21 setup. With Levante shipping 16 goals in eight games against Athletic's six in seven, that duo's handling of Sannadi's aerial presence is central.
- The goalkeeping duel pits two very different careers against each other. Levante's Mat Ryan, 34, is Australia's long-serving number one and has played for Club Brugge, Valencia, Brighton, Arsenal and Real Sociedad among others. Unai Simon, 29, is Spain's 190cm first choice, famous for his penalty shootout heroics at Euro 2020, and has anchored a back line that has conceded just six times this season.
- Athletic's defence is led by Aymeric Laporte, the 32-year-old left-footer who won the Premier League and Champions League at Manchester City and Euro 2024 with Spain before returning from Al-Nassr, alongside academy graduate Yeray Alvarez (31), a specialist in one-on-one duels. Laporte's long left-footed passing starts the build-up, and Levante will look to Ivan Romero (25, a Sevilla academy product) running in behind to disrupt it.
- The full-back battle is worth watching. Yuri Berchiche, 36, won a domestic treble with Paris Saint-Germain and still supplies dangerous left-footed crosses, while 23-year-old Hugo Rincon brings energy after his time at Girona. Levante counter with Manu Sanchez (26), an Atletico Madrid academy product known for his left-footed deliveries, and 32-year-old German Jeremy Toljan, a veteran of Hoffenheim, Borussia Dortmund and Celtic.
- Julian Calero also has options from the bench. Cameroonian forward Etta Eyong, 27, scored 19 goals for Villarreal B after converting to a striker at Cadiz and offers raw pace in behind. Behind him sit teenage academy winger Paco Cortes (19) and Hugo Sotero (22), the Celta-raised midfielder who made his La Liga debut against Barcelona at just 17 - useful cards for a side desperate to turn draws into wins.