Historically the derby between Levante and Valencia has not woken up as many tensions as those in other cities like Seville (Betis-Sevilla is a religion) or Madrid (the rojiblancos have been looking at the meringues for years). In fact, this meeting has not historically been the regional duel ‘par excellence’ of the Valencian Community, since the most repeated has been the Valencia-Elche with a total of 45 encounters. However, over the years the rivalry between the two entities has increased and despite the fact that the balance continues to be clearly in favor of those from Mestalla (21 wins, 9 draws and 9 wins for Levante), with the step forward taken by the Orriols entity in the last decade it is undeniable that every time there is more ‘pique’ between the two parts of the city.
Levante and Valencia do not live, far from it, their happiest days. Granotas are already afraid of relegation while Valencia has been out of Europe for two years in a row, perhaps due to the absence of more ambitious goals, the rivalry between the two has grown in recent seasons. You only have to look at the past year when both teams came very tight in the classification to the last days of the championship in the middle area of the table. In the Levante, the own Paco Lopez publicly acknowledged that: “We have many goals, among them stay ahead of Valencia “. In Valencia the message was not so clear out of doors, but internally they did have it in mind, very much in mind.
And it is that when the team that virtually got salvation some of the players, including the three winter signings, expected to have more minutes in the competition in the few remaining games, but to the surprise of many, Voro continued to rank very competitive eleven with most starter players. Faced with the disappointment of the less common lThe explanation was clear: there were television objectives to be met (it is not the same to be tenth or ninth) and they did not want Levante to be ahead of Valencia in the classification, something that had never happened in history. The message was clear and It was shared by the entire entity, from the highest spheres to the dressing room itself, although it was not publicly admitted as forcefully as the neighbors did. Finally, the black and white were two points higher than their rivals and they kept their league superiority intact.