Matchday one in the La Liga Santander spans into Sunday with a handful of games on show. One of them involves a clash at the Estadio Mestalla as Valencia play hosts to Levante. Which side will secure the spoils in this Spanish League opener?

Valencia finished in 9th place at the end of the 2019/2020 La Liga Santander season. The COVID-19 lockdown seems to have taken away the side's momentum as they managed to win only two of the ten games played after the league restarted. Javi Gracia now has to look towards rebuilding the side that managed to finish in the top four at the end of the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

With the loss of Rodrigo, Ferran Torres, Parejo, and Coquelin, the head coach certainly does have his work cut out. However, the team has managed to impress in recent club friendlies. The most recent one against FC Cartagena ended with a 3-1 victory.

Levante would be proud of their achievement at the end of the 2019/2020 season. In only their second season back in the top flight, they managed to top their performance in the 2018/2019 season by five points. This creates some excitement in the hearts of the Levante faithful as to what the team will achieve this season.

The Gratonas have done some business in this transfer market bringing in Gomes and de Fruto- both from Real Madrid. Both signings managed to impress as the side won of their four club friendlies games. Will they be able to carry forward that same momentum come Sunday?

Levante, in recent seasons, hasn't been able to get the better of Valencia registering only one win in seven encounters. In that same spell, Valencia has managed only three wins with the remaining ending in stalemate.

Valencia possible starting XI:

Cillessen; Gaya, Mangala, Gabriel, Wass; Kondogbia, Jason; Guedes, Lee, Cheryshev; Gomez

Levante possible starting XI:

Fernandez, Clerc, Duarte, Pier; Melero, Radoja, Bardhi, Campana; Marti, Morales

Valencia vs Levante Prediction: 1-1

All through last season, Valencia were terrible away from home. However, they had the fourth-best home record losing only once in the 19 home games. They're normally expected to carry forward this momentum but given the loss of key players, we don't expect them to do so. As a result, we would be sitting on the fence for this one with the game ending in a scoring draw.