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Celta Vigo welcome Levante UD to Balaídos on Tuesday evening, 12 May 2026, with both clubs needing something different from the same game. For Celta, sixth place and 50 points have them on the edge of a very respectable finish, and Claudio Giráldez’s side are still chasing the sort of strong run that can turn a decent season into a proper push for Europe. Levante arrive in 19th, scraping for safety with 36 points and a defensive record that leaves them far too much to do. They need points, plain and simple.
There’s a bit of texture to this one too. Celta’s schedule has been split between LaLiga and the Europa League, where they were beaten by SC Freiburg in the knockout stage, while Levante have been living on the knife-edge of the league table for weeks. One side is trying to protect a top-half ambition that’s still alive. The other is trying not to slide further into the drop zone. That difference in pressure matters, but it doesn’t make this straightforward. Levante can score. Celta have been leaking chances at home. Goals feel likely.
Celta’s recent league form has been a proper mixed bag, the kind that keeps a manager busy. They went to Atlético Madrid on 9 May and nicked a 1-0 win, which was no small thing given the scale of the task and the manner of the performance. It was gritty rather than pretty. Before that, they had beaten Elche 3-1 at home on 3 May, a result that came with a bit more attacking bite and a lot more comfort. Then the picture changes sharply: away defeats at Villarreal and Barcelona, both by a single goal, sat alongside the 1-3 home loss to Freiburg in Europe and the ugly 0-3 home defeat to Real Oviedo in the league. That’s the story of their spring, really. Some decent highs, some frustrating lows, and not much middle ground.
At home in LaLiga, Celta’s numbers are fine without being frightening. They’ve posted five wins, five draws and seven defeats at Balaídos, scoring 26 and conceding 25. That’s not the record of a side who shuts games down with authority. It’s the record of a team that can be played against. They do have enough attacking quality to hurt opponents, and their overall league position proves they’ve been getting results more often than not, but the home balance is messy. Celta will score in spells. They’ll also give you chances. That’s been the pattern.
The positive for Giráldez is that there’s been some recent resistance. Their win in Madrid came after a couple of tough away defeats, so they’ve at least shown they can reset quickly after setbacks. Still, they’ve conceded in enough games and allowed enough pressure in their own area to make clean-sheet optimism feel thin. This isn’t a side that suffocates opponents. Far from it. If Levante can get through the first half alive, they’ll fancy their moments.
Levante come into this off a lively 3-2 home win over Osasuna on 8 May, and that result summed them up neatly. Energetic, open, a little chaotic, and capable of both impressing and alarming in the same breath. The win came after a brutal 5-1 thumping away to Villarreal, which followed a 0-0 at Espanyol and then two decent victories at home against Sevilla and Getafe. Earlier, they were beaten 2-0 away at Real Sociedad. So this isn’t a side in clean, orderly rhythm. It’s more volatile than that. When Levante are good, they can really go. When they’re off, they unravel fast.
Their away record explains plenty about why they’re sitting so low. Three wins, four draws and ten defeats on the road is the sort of return that leaves you exposed every weekend. They’ve scored 17 away goals and conceded 29, which tells the story in blunt terms. They can find the net away from home, but they rarely keep things together at the other end. That’s a problem at Balaídos, where Celta won’t need many invitations to have a go. Mind you, Levante haven’t been entirely toothless on their travels. A 0-0 at Espanyol showed they can hang in there. The trouble is, they usually give something away sooner or later.
There is one reason they won’t arrive in fear: the attack is live. They scored three against Osasuna, four of their five goals came before the break, and their season total of 41 league goals is respectable enough for a side near the bottom. The issue is what happens after they score, or when they don’t. They’ve been too open, too easy to drag into a shootout. That can work for a while. It rarely works for long in a relegation battle.
Celta have had the better of this fixture recently, and that matters here. They won 2-1 at Levante in November 2025, which extended a neat little run of control in the matchup. Before that, there was a 1-1 draw in February 2022, and Celta had already beaten Levante 2-0 away in September 2021 and 2-0 at home in April 2021. Levante’s best answer in the more distant meetings has usually come through goals rather than control, and that fits the broader pattern.
The head-to-head trend leans toward open football and, more often than not, both teams finding the net. Eight of the last ten meetings have seen BTTS land. That’s a strong line, and it fits the way these teams are built right now. Celta are good enough to hurt Levante. Levante are open enough to give something back. You wouldn’t expect this to be a shutout either way.
We’re backing Both Teams To Score at 8/11 for this one. For more context beyond this pick, see our over 2.5 goals tips page, which pulls together over 2.5 goals picks with more goal-heavy matches built around the same logic. It’s the right side of the market because neither team looks remotely reliable enough to protect a clean sheet, and both carry enough threat to punish the other. Celta have scored 49 league goals this season and have just taken a win at Atlético, but they’ve also conceded 44 overall and only kept their home record hovering around parity. Levante, for all their struggles, have scored 41 and turned their last home match into a 3-2 win. They’re not coming just to sit in.
The predicted score is 2-1 to Celta Vigo. That fits the balance of the match and the numbers around it. Celta’s home edge should tell, but Levante are lively enough to nick one, especially against a side that doesn’t exactly lock the door. If you wanted a safer alternative, Celta to win and Both Teams To Score has a decent shape to it, but BTTS alone is the cleaner play. This one feels like goals at both ends.
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