REAL MADRID v LEVANTE
Football : Spain : Primera
Saturday 19th February 2011

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After a sticky couple of away results, Madrid are back on track with two wins on the bounce against Sociedad (who don’t travel well) and Espanyol (who always roll over submissively when Madrid come to town). And Los Merengeues should have no problems easing past Levante back at the Bernebeu this Saturday.

With Barcelona slipping up last week, and not playing until after the Madrid game, Mourinhos men will know this is their chance to put a little pressure on the old enemy.

Even with the much maligned strikers Adebayor and Benzema in the side, Madrid will surely have too much firepower for newly promoted Levante.

The visitors do have the ability to pull off a shock, as they did two weeks ago winning at Villarreal, and as they did winning in the Bernebeu in 2007. And they are in a rich vein of form having won three on the spin.

But we should expect normal service to be resumed this weeked, as Levantes away form is particularly poor, with 2 win and 2 draws to show from 12 games.

The question as always is how to get on the side of the home favourites at such short odds on prices.

Madrid put five past Levante in 2008, but we shouldnt necessarily expect that sort of score again. With Levante in decent form, this might be a bit more of a battle than the odds imply.

And with Real Madrids milky strikers (Ronaldo excepted), and yet another tough Champions League trip to Lyon to keep their powder dry for, there is reason to beleive Madrid will give the sort of result and performance that Mourinho excels in ... get the job done with the minimum of fuss and effort.

The Betting Verdict :

Therefore we return to the bet that has proved so successful this season up until the last few weeks. Dutch Real Madrid to win by exactly 1 and 2 goals in the winning margin market.

If successful the bet collects at 2.22, which is a lot more palatable than 1.15 for the straight home win or asking a Mourinho side to clear a huge handicap.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Real Madrid 2 Levante 0

PERCENTAGE ESTIMATE :

Real Madrid 60% - Draw 30% - Levante 10%

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take two bets in the winning margin/margin of victory market at 5 and 4 (ladbrokes) :
- Real Madrid to win by 1 goal
- and Real Madrid to win by 2 goals