Barcelona remain perfect to start the season and have made it five wins out of five in La Liga thanks to a hard-fought 4-2 victory away to Levante on Sunday afternoon. The Blaugrana were the superior team for most of the game despite conceding two bad goals late in the second half, and Lamine Yamal’s brace helped the leaders secure another win and maintain their three-point lead at the top of the table.
Fast starts have been a fixture of Hansi Flick’s side to start the season, and they made another
one as Xavi Espart scored his first Barça goal just five minutes into the action following a beautiful passing sequence.
Fifteen minutes later came the second, starting with an amazing pass from the back by Pau Cubarsí to find Fermín López who then sent a long ball to find Raphinha, and the captain showed great composure to dribble past the keeper and give Lamine Yamal a tap-in to double the Barça lead.
The Catalans were in full control of the action and never suffered defensively, although Levante had a couple of dangerous attacks that were ruled out for offside. The home team could not touch the ball for the whole half and became very frustrated, and started resorting to very physical play to disrupt the Barça rhythm.
But Barça remained calm, continued to dominate the ball and went into the break with a deserved two-goal lead after playing yet another strong first half.
Barça got the all-important, game-clinching third goal at the very start of the second half as Yamal won and scored a penalty to give the Catalans a three-goal lead and kill any potential comeback hopes from the home team.
Levante went forward in the initial minutes following the goal and gave the Barça defense one or two small scares, but the Catalans quickly went back to controlling the ball and looking to add a fourth. They wasted a few good chances on the counter, but Flick was confident enough in the scoreline to make a few changes at the hour mark and rest both Pedri and Yamal.
Barça were cruising to the finish but made things harder for themselves as a poor pass by Espart inside his own box gave Iván Romero an easy goal, and the home team suddenly had a little bit of life in the contest. Levante had even more life when Marc Bernal lost a silly ball in his own half and Roger Brugué found a way to get past Joan Garcia, and Barça were in for a dramatic finish.
Then Karim Adeyemi happened: the substitute went on an amazing solo run down the left side and scored a spectacular goal in added time to restore Barça’s two-goal lead and avoid a nervy finish in glorious fashion.
The final whsitle came to end an unnecessarily dramatic victory for a Barça side that should have been out of sight and created their own problems, but the overall performance was still strong and the attack continues to score at an excellent pace.
Well done, boys!
