Villarreal Edge Past Levante in Tight Friendly
Villarreal saw off Levante 1:0 in a Club Friendlies fixture on Wednesday, 5 August. The match ended with a single goal separating the two sides, and nothing more to separate them on the day. L. Costa broke the deadlock when the game needed a decisive moment.
There was a yellow card for Levante at the nineteen-minute mark, an early sign that the game would be physical. By then Levante had already made one change, bringing I. Romero on at the half-hour. To be fair, Levante kept pushing for changes in the second half, bringing on G. Moreno and N. Perez together at the break.
And here's the thing — the goal came at sixty-two minutes, well into the second half when both teams had settled into a rhythm. Costa's strike was enough to shift the balance, and Villarreal held firm after that. Levante threw bodies in the way in response, but could not find an equaliser.
By the seventy-eighth minute Levante had made another substitution, this time T. Abed, as they searched for something to change the game. Villarreal had introduced A. Freeman earlier, at fifty-five minutes, but the shape held firm after Costa's goal. Things came to a head in the closing stages, but neither side could pull ahead.
The statistics tell a story of even contest. Both sides held possession at fifty percent, though Villarreal registered slightly more attacks — one hundred and thirty-eight to Levante's one hundred and twenty-three. Levante won the corner battle eight to five, suggesting they pushed forward more in the final phase.
Villarreal's recent run has been mixed, with losses to Lance and Benfica among their last five outings. Levante came into this fixture on a better note, having beaten Albacete and Al-Qadisiya in their most recent matches. The result keeps both sides moving forward in their pre-season preparations.
