Preview

 

Sports Mole previews Thursday's pre-season clash between Levante and Wolverhampton Wanderers, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Wolverhampton Wanderers continue their pre-season schedule with a friendly against Levante in Benidorm on Thursday morning.

While this game will represent the Premier League side's fourth outing of the summer, Levante currently have just one game under their belt.

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Match preview

With their opening two games of pre-season having taken place behind closed doors by July 9, Wolves now go from one extreme to the other with five fixtures between July 20 and July 31.

A day before this contest, Bruno Lage's team will square off against Alaves, while Besiktas, Sporting Lisbon and Farense will follow the meeting with Levante.

All things considered, it is likely that Wolves will go with a largely second-string XI for this game, but Lage will still be intrigued to witness how his fringe players match up against a team such as Levante.

In Wolves' opening two games, they posted 4-1 and 3-0 wins over Forest Green Rovers and Burnley respectively, those matches taking place at their training facilities.

Seven different players got on the scoresheet and Lage will hope that it is a sign of things to come after two desperately poor seasons in the final third.

As far as Levante are concerned, they are currently preparing for their first year back in the second tier after their relegation from La Liga.

Despite victory on the final day, Levante still finished four points adrift of safety, leaving new head coach Mehdi Nafti with a rebuilding job at Ciutat de Valencia.

With their new campaign not commencing until August 12, Levante had played just one game since returning to training on July 4, running out 5-1 winners against Qatar SC.

Three days following this game, Levante square off against fellow top-tier outfit Getafe as they look to step up their preparations.

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Team News

With Wolves having a game with Besiktas on Saturday, Lage is unlikely to call upon any players who are pencilled in to square off against the Turkish giants.

That may lead to Lage switching to a back four, with Toti Gomes and Yerson Mosquera being used in front of second-choice goalkeeper Matija Sarkic.

Luke Cundle should feature in the centre of midfield, with Connor Ronan, Chem Campbell and Theo Corbeanu potentially being used in a rotational front three with Fabio Silva joining Anderlecht on loan.

Nafti may opt to give the Levante players who started against Qatar SC an opportunity to further improve their match fitness.

However, if available, goalkeeper Dani Cardenas may return between the sticks for this contest.

Levante possible starting lineup:
Cardenas; Son, Franquesa, Pier, Pepelu, Marti, Cantero, Vezo, Giorgi, Melero, Gimenez

Wolverhampton Wanderers possible starting lineup:
Sarkic; Lembisika, Toti, Mosquera, Bueno; Griffiths, Hodge, Cundle; Ronan, Corbeanu, Campbell

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We say: Levante 2-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers

With Wolves potentially naming a second-string XI for this contest, this is a difficult game to predict. Nevertheless, we expect there to be plenty of goals at either end, leading us to go with a score draw.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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