A clash between two teams rock bottom of La Liga takes place on Sunday, when Alaves travel to the Estadio Ciudad de Valencia, where they will face 20th-placed Levante.
Currently sitting six points behind 17th spot, Levante's relegation from the Spanish top flight has all but been confirmed, while Alaves sit four points adrift of safety with two games to play.
Match preview
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Alessio Lisci's side managed to secure a positive 2-1 win against sixth-placed Real Sociedad last week, but they could not follow that up with a good result against champions Real Madrid in midweek.
Los Blancos thoroughly enjoyed their outing against Levante on Thursday, registering 16 shots on target at Dani Cardenas's goal, scoring six of those attempts with no reply from the visitors at the Bernabeu.
Shipping six goals against the top goalscoring team in Spain this season perhaps comes to no one's surprise, especially considering that Levante have now conceded 73 goals in 36 matches this year.
While Levante could still equal the points tally of 17th spot, to do so needing to win both remaining games and hope the teams above them lose, Sunday's hosts would still need a big swing in goal difference, as they are currently 12 goals worse off than Cadiz.
This weekend is Lisci's side's last match on home soil, and they will want to back up their win against Sociedad with another victory in front of the own supporters, which would be the first time they record back-to-back wins on their own patch this campaign.
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Alaves have more hope of surviving relegation this year, as they currently sit within touching distance of the safety threshold, but other results would have to go their way and they would be required to win both remaining matches.
Julio Velazquez's side were boosted by a 2-1 win against Espanyol last time out, when goals from Miguel de la Fuente and Gonzalo Escalante ensured three points were added to their total La Liga tally so far.
This game's importance is heightened by the fact that Alaves host Cadiz on the final day next weekend, meaning that victory for this Sunday's visitors could mean that winner takes all in one week's time.
However, Alaves have only managed to win once on their travels this year, conceding 41 goals in 18 matches away from home, which does not bode well for this weekend, despite facing the side rock bottom of the table.
Velazquez will be hoping that his side can emulate the result that they secured against Levante in the reverse fixture in November, when Deportivo were under the management of Javier Calleja, who guided the hosts to a 2-1 win.
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Team News
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Carlos Clerc, Jorge de Frutos, Roberto Soldado and Shkodran Mustafi will all remain absent from Levante's squad due to injury, and the hosts lose a significant attacking presence with De Frutos and Soldado unavailable.
Lisci made three changes to his side in midweek at the Bernabeu, with Martin Caceres, Sergio Postigo and Gonzalo Melero entering the starting 11, but Levante are expected to recall Ruben Vezo, Oscar Duarte and Jose Campana this weekend.
Jose Luis Morales will continue to lead the line alongside Dani Gomez, with Jorge Miramon and Son creating the width from their wing-back roles, although, they are likely to remain quite defensive.
Alaves full-back Ximo Navarro was shown a straight red card earlier this month, forcing him to miss out on Wednesday, when Ruben Duarte came into the side in Navarro's absence.
The visitors are expected to name an unchanged side, although, they will have to assess the fitness of midfielder Escalante, who left the field seven minutes from time due to an injury.
Levante possible starting lineup:
Cardenas; Son, Duarte, Vezo, Rober, Miramon; Campana, Radoja, Pepelu; Morales, Gomez
Alaves possible starting lineup:
Pacheco; Duarte, Lejeune, Laguardia, Tenaglia; Ndiaye, Escalante; Rioja, Jason, De la Fuente; Joselu
We say: Levante 0-1 Alaves
Despite Alaves' poor away record this season, Sunday presents an opportunity to build on their positive win against Espanyol and the visitors are likely to be more driven to three points, as Levante are all but relegated.
It is likely to be a low-scoring affair given the sides' record in the final third, but Levante will be down after a heavy defeat in midweek, which is in contrast to Alaves.
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 Levante win with a probability of 58.47%. A draw had a probability of 22.6% and a win for Alaves had a probability of 18.97%.
The most likely scoreline for a Levante win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.35%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.45%) and 2-1 (9.88%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.72%), while for an Alaves win it was 0-1 (5.82%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 6.1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Levante would win this match.
