Levante UD (15th, 0pts) vs FC Barcelona (1st, 3pts)*
*Standings at beginning of Matchday
Competition/Round: 2025-26 La Liga, Matchday 2
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Marc-André ter Stegen, Marc Bernal, Héctor Fort, Oriol Romeu (out), Wojciech Szczesny, Gerard Martín, Roony Bardghji (doubt)
Levante Outs & Doubts: Alan Maturro, Alfonso Pastor, Jon Olasagasti, Kervin Arriaga, Goduine Koyalipou (doubt)
Date/Time: Saturday, August 23, 2025, 9.30pm CET (Barcelona), 8.30pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3.30pm ET, 13.30pm PT (USA), 1am IST (India, Sunday)
Venue: Estadi Ciutat
de València, València, Spain
Referee: Alejandro Hernández
VAR: Jorge Figueroa
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), SuperSport (Nigeria), Movistar (Spain), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), Prime Video (UK), FanCode (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others
Following a solid win away to Mallorca to begin their La Liga title defense last weekend, Barcelona are back in action with another road trip as the champions travel to València to face last season’s Second Division title holders Levante at the Ciutat de València Stadium on Saturday Night Fútbol.
Barça come into this one looking to shake off the somewhat strange vibes despite a 3-0 win and a clean sheet in their season opener, but the manner of the performance, especially after Mallorca went down to nine men, left a lot to be desired in terms of focus and intensity from a Barça side that is usually ruthless under Hansi Flick but looked slow and uninterested for large parts of the second half last week.
Flick called out his team publicly and privately for their poor showing and has urged his side to put together a complete performance in this one, and they’ll certainly have to do it because playing Levante away hasn’t gone very well for Barça in recent times: the Catalans have won just two of their last six games at the Ciutat de València in all competitions, and must be ready for a battle from the start.
Levante won their league last season with a strong defense and a dangerous counter-attacking outfit, and they’ll use that formula to try and pull off the upset on Saturday. They’re expected to play a back five with two quick wing-backs and two fast strikers up front, so they certainly have the personnel to cause this Barça team trouble.
The Blaugrana will be big favorites to win against a Levante side still struggling to register their players — as of this writing, only 17 outfield players have been registered, many of them academy products — and that will be betting on a lot of youth and their brilliant home crowd to try and survive the top flight this season, especially in early weeks.
Levante will consider a point a major result against the mighty Barça, but they always find a way to make things weird and chaotic against the Catalans at home and might steal all three if Flick’s troops aren’t on it from the start.
Barça must play serious, focused, intense, creative football from the start, take their chances early and never stop attacking. That’s how they won almost everything last season, and that’s how they’ll try to win everything in this one.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Garcia; Eric, Araujo, Cubarsí, Balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Ferran
Levante (5-3-2): Cuñat; Toljan, De La Fuente, Elgezabal, Cabello, Sánchez; Álvarez, Rey, Martínez; Romero, Brugué
PREDICTION
Levante away is always weird, but I expect Barça to respond after last week’s underwhelming win and put on a strong performance with another road win: 3-1 to the good guys.
