Atletico Madrid will be looking to make it three La Liga victories in a row when they travel to Estadio Olimpico Camilo Cano on Tuesday night to face Levante.
Diego Simeone's side have risen into third spot in the table courtesy of back-to-back wins over Osasuna and Real Valladolid, while Levante occupy 11th position and are unbeaten in their last four league games.
Match preview
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Levante have finished 15th in each of their last two seasons at this level, but the Valencia-based outfit are potentially on course for their highest position since 2013-14, when they claimed 10th.
Indeed, a solid campaign to date has seen Granotas pick up 38 points from their 30 matches to sit 11th, just four points behind 10th-placed Granada and just five points off the top eight.
Paco Lopez's side have not lost since returning to action in the middle of June, picking up draws against Valencia and Sevilla before recording a 3-1 victory at Espanyol on Saturday.
Sitting 12 points clear of the bottom three, there is no real pressure on the club entering the final stages of the season, and a positive result in this game would leave their fans dreaming of a top-half finish.
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Atletico were actually sixth in the table ahead of their return to action on June 14, but they have picked up seven points from their last three matches to rise into third spot.
Indeed, a 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao has been followed by successive wins over Osasuna and Real Valladolid, although they needed a late goal from Vitolo to overcome the latter on Saturday night.
The capital giants are now unbeaten in their last eight La Liga matches, while they impressively overcame Liverpool in the last-16 stage of the Champions League before the season was postponed.
The European Cup will resume in August, meaning that Atletico can focus on finishing as high up the table as possible, and they have a huge game away to Barcelona to come before the end of the month.
Atletico have only won four of their 15 away games this season, but the visitors will be full of confidence entering Tuesday's clash, which will take place at the Estadio Olimpico Camilo Cano in La Nucia rather than Levante's usual home ground.
Levante La Liga form: WLDDDW
Atletico La Liga form: WDDDWW
Atletico form (all competitions): DDWDWW
Team News
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Levante will again be without the services of Ivan Lopez due to a knee injury, but Ruben Rochina is available after serving a one-game suspension against Espanyol.
Lopez is expected to shuffle his pack from the side that triumphed against the Catalan outfit, meaning potential recalls for Jose Luis Morales, Tono, Bruno and Coke.
Borja Mayoral, though, could keep his spot in the final third after scoring on Saturday afternoon.
As for Atletico, defenders Felipe and Sime Vrsaljko remain on the sidelines through injury, but Simeone's side did not pick up any fresh concerns in the win over Valladolid.
Koke, Angel Correa, Diego Costa and Renan Lodi are all in line for recalls having been named on the bench at the weekend, while Saul Niguez should also return to the midfield.
Costa could take Alvaro Morata's spot in the final third of the field, while Thomas Lemar, Marcos Llorente and Hector Herrera are expected to drop out of the midfield positions.
Levante possible starting lineup:
Aitor; Coke, Bruno, Vezo, Tono; Bardhi, Vukcevic, Melero, Rochina; Morales, Mayoral
Atletico possible starting lineup:
Oblak; Tripper, Gimenez, Savic, Lodi; Koke, Thomas, Saul, Correa; Felix, Costa
We say: Levante 1-2 Atletico
This is a really, really tough game to call due to Levante's impressive form. It would certainly not be a surprise to see the two teams share the spoils, but Atletico will have been boosted by back-to-back wins, and we fancy Simeone's side to just do enough to secure another three points in this match.
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 Atletico Madrid win with a probability of 51.64%. A draw had a probability of 24.3% and a win for Levante had a probability of 24.11%.
The most likely scoreline for an Atletico Madrid win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.82%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.65%) and 0-2 (9.06%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.52%), while for a Levante win it was 1-0 (6.88%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 10.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Atletico Madrid in this match.
