Levante 1 - 0 Espanyol - In-form Levante see off out-of-sorts Espanyol

Posted Sunday, March 06, 2011 by PA

Espanyol's poor recent form continued as they lost 1-0 at lowly Levante in the Primera Division.

The Barcelona-based side, who had lost five of their previous six league games, were edged out by Felipe Caicedo's first-half goal.

Caicedo got in front of Jordi Amat to head home from Valmiro Valdo's cross after 26 minutes and give Levante a lead they had deserved following their early dominance.

Luis Garcia's side have been on form of late, winning four of their last six Primera Division fixtures to move away from the bottom of the standings.

They had begun this match brightly and were perhaps rather unlucky not to have taken the lead after 10 minutes, when Juanlu Gomez fired a shot against the crossbar and the ball looked to rebound behind the line before bouncing out.

Even replays remained inconclusive, however, and play continued.

The promoted side finally got their breakthrough after 26 minutes, though, and looked good for that lead until the end of the half, when Espanyol began to pressure for the first time in the game.

Alvaro Vazquez was off target for the visitors eight minutes before the interval and Joan Verdu shot wide from the edge of the box early in the second period.

But Espanyol were unable to find a breakthrough and had goalkeeper Carlos Kameni to thank for a fine save in the final minute, when the Cameroonian reacted brilliantly to keep out Juanlu's header.

Espanyol remain in fifth, still 10 points behind fourth-placed Villarreal, who lost at Atletico Madrid yesterday.

Levante climb to 12th and are now five points clear of the drop zone with 11 rounds of the championship remaining.