A relegation-six-pointer vibe, with Levante hanging on by their fingernails
This is the kind of Friday night La Liga spot that looks ugly on paper and ends up deciding seasons. Levante comes in ice-cold — five straight without a win and a run of matches where the goals have just vanished — but they’ve also had a schedule that included Barcelona, Villarreal, Valencia, Athletic Bilbao, and Atlético Madrid. That’s not exactly a confidence builder.
Alavés, meanwhile, is doing the opposite of Levante emotionally: they’re still not “good” by the numbers over the last 10 (2W-8L), but they’ve finally stacked a couple wins (2-1 over Espanyol away, 2-1 over Betis at home) and you can feel the market trying to decide whether that’s a real turn or just two clean bounces.
So you’ve got a home side in 19th with a battered XI and a crowd that’s nervous, hosting an away side that’s basically the same tier by underlying power (ELO: Levante 1462 vs Alavés 1477) but arriving with momentum. That’s why the “Alavés vs Levante odds” board is tight, and why the draw price is sitting right in the middle of the conversation.
Matchup breakdown: two low-output attacks, but Levante’s margin for error is razor-thin
If you’re shopping for a free-flowing, 3-2 kind of match, this probably isn’t it. Both teams are living around a goal a game: Levante at 0.8 scored / 1.5 allowed on average, Alavés at 1.0 scored / 1.5 allowed. The difference is how those numbers are being produced lately.
Levante’s last five is brutal: L-L-L-L-D, with a 0-0 home draw vs Atlético as the only “positive” result. They’ve been shut out repeatedly, and the defensive record is the league’s worst at 41 conceded in 24 matches. When a team is conceding that much, they can’t afford to be toothless — and right now they are.
Alavés has been uneven, but their last five (D-D-L-W-W) includes goals in four of five. Even in the draws (2-2 vs Girona, 1-1 at Sevilla), they’re finding ways to create enough to get on the board. That matters in a matchup where the spread is essentially saying “pick a side, but don’t get too brave.”
From a pure power-rating lens, this is close to a coin flip (that +0.1 model spread type of game). The angle is situational: Levante’s confidence is shot, and the injury/suspension list is the kind that breaks fragile teams. Alavés doesn’t need to be spectacular — they just need to be stable.