La Liga: Barcelona v Levante Odds and Betting Preview

BARCELONA, SPAIN - All eyes will be on the Nou Camp this evening when second-placed Barcelona entertain fourth-placed Levante in Matchday 15 of the 2011/12 La Liga season.

Barcelona may have lost their tag as favourites to retain La Liga, but they are certainly heavily favoured by the bookmakers to clinch the three points tonight, with the best odds on the home win being the 1/9 (bet £900 to win just £100 profit) with Blue Square and Stan James. A draw is on offer at a huge 11/1 with Victor Chandler, whilst an unlikely win for high-flying Levante is as big as 25/1 with Bet365 and Sky Bet.

The defending La Liga champions are currently three points behind arch-rivals Real Madrid in the domestic table, having played one game less, so any further slip-ups could prove to be very costly indeed, especially at home. Last month Barcelona were involved in 1-0 defeat at lowly Getafe, and despite the best efforts of David Villa and Leo Messi, it saw the momentum swing back to Madrid in the title race, which was realistically always going to be a two horse race. Pep Guardiola’s side did bounce back this week with a cosy 4-0 success over mid-table Rayo Vallecano, and captain Carles Puyol is expected to return to the starting XI in the place of the suspended Gerard Pique tonight.

Levante have had a bad time of it lately, losing three of their previous four La Liga games and have been leap-frogged by Valencia in the table. However they did record an impressive 4-0 success over Sporting Gijon last weekend to return to winning ways, with Ivory Coast striker Arouna Koné grabbing a brace. Spaniard José Barkero, who was an inspired signing from Numancia in the summer, has been pulling the strings in the Levante side this season, but the yellow card he picked up against Gijon means that he is suspended for the Barcelona trip.

Given that Levante have lost the last six times they have travelled to the Nou Camp in La Liga, it in unsurprising that the favoured scorelines in the correct score betting market are all home wins. 2-0 and 3-0 lead the way, both at 6/1, available at bet365 and Ladbrokes respectively. Another 4-0 win for Barcelona can be backed at 7/1 with Betfred, which probably underestimates their opposition, even if they will be without Barkero. 5-0 is deemed more likely than a slender 1-0 win by bet365 at 9/1, but punters should consider the fact that Levante have scored five times in their previous six visits to Barcelona. In that case a 3-1 home win could appeal at 14/1 with William Hill, whilst Levante’s best chance of a win is 0-1, which is a 66/1 shot with Coral. A 0-0 ‘bore draw’ is also very unlikely, and can be backed at 25/1 with Blue Square.

Barcelona’s players also dominate the first goalscorer betting, with Messi put in as the favourite once again at a skinny 2/1 with Ladbrokes. Messi scored his 16th goal in La Liga this season against Rayo Vallecano and continues to be unstoppable, but David Villa is the other obvious choice at 7/2 with William Hill. Alexis Sanchez is 4/1 with bet365, who will refund losing first and last goalscorer bets if the game finishes in a ‘bore draw’, even if it looks highly unlikely to do so tonight. Xavi is at 11/1 with bet365 to net first, whilst Levante’s best shot is with the in-form Koné, who can be backed by optimists at 33/1 with bet365.

Another market attracting plenty of activity is the half-time/full-time betting, as punters seek to cash in on a Barcelona win. Barcelona/Barcelona is very short at 4/11 with Paddy Power, but there could be value to be had with Draw/Barcelona at 9/2 with Betfred if you think Levante can put up resistance in the first half to the three-pronged Barcelona attack.

Finally Messi is 7/2 with Sky Bet to score in both halves and is just 6/1 with bwin to score a hat-trick. If you fancy the flood-gates to open, over 5.5 goals can be backed at 9/2 with William Hill.

The match kicks-off at 8pm local time on Saturday 3 December, which is 7pm GMT in the UK. It is live on Sky Sports 4 and follows the Gijon v Real Madrid game.

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