Deportivo and Levante were set to meet at Abanca-Riazor on 16 October 2026 at 21.00 hours, with the ninth jornada of LaLiga EA Sports turning into a live pre-match watch before a ball was kicked. The game landed in A Coruña with both clubs being tracked closely for their final starting XIs and the latest coaching comments.
That is why the search now is simple: the match page was already moving from preview to kickoff territory, and the lineups were still shifting. MARCA first put out one Deportivo side and then another, while also doing the same for Levante, leaving the final shape of both teams to be read in the later confirmed teams rather than the earlier projection.
Antonio Hidalgo framed Levante as a team full of energy and movement, one that tries to draw opponents in, build from the back and crowd the last line. He also said Luis Castro was doing a great job, while stressing that Adama Traoré was still improving physically after missing preseason and that Yeremay had to keep pushing his limit. The coach’s read was not defensive or cautious; it was a direct warning that this was a side with ideas and enough pace to make the night uncomfortable.
Castro answered with a line that fit the mood around the game: “Hemos peleado para ganar y las cosas vendrán.” He said his team had fought to win and noted that Deportivo had kept many of the players who logged the most minutes after promotion from Segunda, which is part of why this matchup was being treated as one between direct rivals rather than just another date on the calendar. The two clubs arrived at the same point in the season with the same problem to solve: how to turn a strong start into something that can survive the pressure of a long league race.
What made the live update stand out was the way it exposed the uncertainty before kickoff. One published Deportivo XI featured Leo Román, Ximo Navarro, Giménez, Ede, Quagliata, Villares, Riki, Soriano, Yeremay, Luismi and Nsongo, while a later version moved to Ferllo, Loureiro, Altimira, Noubi, Angeliño, Noé Carrillo, Yayo, Jensen, Mella, Adama Traoré, Martín and Kevin. Levante followed the same pattern, first with Ryan, Nacho Pérez, Dela, Ndukwe, Manu Sánchez, Oriol Rey, Requena, Bardeli, Brugué, Thiago and Iván Romero, then with Cuñat, Galdin, Toljan, Mandi, Cabello, Tape, Olasagasti, Víctor García, Ratkov, Paco Cortés and Musuayi. That left the later listed sides as the final confirmed lineups heading into the 21.00 kickoff.
By the time the match was due to start, the story was no longer just about a fixture in the ninth jornada. It was about which of those final XIs Hidalgo and Castro would trust from the first whistle, and whether the version of Deportivo and Levante that survived the pre-match noise would be the one that mattered once the game began.
