Villarreal host Levante at the Estadio de la Cerámica on Sunday in their second consecutive home match, with the hosts chasing a sixth straight win and the visitors still fighting to avoid relegation. The game comes after Villarreal beat Celta de Vigo in the same stadium and before Levante return to a table fight that has left them two points from permanence.
Villarreal are in Champions League positions and have won their last five matches, a run built while missing Mouriño, Foyth and Buchanan for this one as well. Pepé remains one of their key players, while Moleiro and Mikautadze have combined for 21 goals this season and give the home side the kind of firepower that has turned a near dream season into something even better than expected.
Levante arrive behind Sevilla in the table after a 0-0 draw with Espanyol in their most recent match, a result that followed two straight wins. One of those victories came against Sevilla, and Iván Romero scored a double in that stretch. Carlos Espí has been Levante's best player in the final stretch of the season, but the team will be without Dela for the trip to Villarreal.
That is why this match matters so much. Villarreal are expected to play in the top European competition next year and have the cushion of form and position. Levante, by contrast, have looked delicate for weeks, though not badly enough to be written off. The club limited Levante to 600 tickets because of stadium capacity, a small detail that reflects just how sharply the stakes have been drawn on both sides of the table.
For Villarreal, another win would stretch a remarkable run and keep the pressure on the teams around them in the race for the European places. For Levante, a point would be valuable, but anything less leaves them still looking up, still calculating, and still needing something from the final stretch that they have not yet fully found.
