Levante vs Espanyol preview - Martinez urges focus

Posted Sunday, September 25, 2011 by PA

Levante coach Juan Ignacio Martinez is refusing to get carried away with his side's fine start to the season, which sees them lying sixth after four rounds and having last weekend claimed the prized scalp of Real Madrid.

The Valencia-based club followed up that 1-0 triumph over Jose Mourinho's star-studded side with a 2-1 victory at Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday and they will hope to make it three wins in the week when they host Espanyol.

It is an impressive start to life on the Levante bench for Martinez, who replaced Luis Garcia in the summer, but the 47-year-old is staying grounded.

"We are a team that to beat anybody requires a huge amount of effort. We are a Primera Division team but we have to keep our feet on the ground because there is a lot of the season left. We have to go game-by-game and that is not just a clichi," said Martinez.

"Levante are not going to relax, everything depends on our values of hard work and sacrifice.

"I'm forgetting about us being in sixth place, although it's true that they are a lot of points, which are very important for our objective and self-confidence of the players, but we will continue working from this perspective of humility."

Next up for Levante are an Espanyol side who have picked up two wins from their opening four matches but are still looking for their first points away from home.

Mauricio Pochettino's side have beaten Atletico Bilbao and Getafe at home but suffered narrow losses to Real Mallorca and Real Zaragoza on their travels.

Summer signing Walter Pandiani netted his side's winner in stoppage time at the end of Thursday's clash with Getafe.

He said following the victory in El Mundo Deportivo: "We're really happy, but we need to recover quickly because we have an important game on Sunday. We can celebrate few things now.

"The Levante game is a good time to break our poor form away from home."