Levante UD (13th, 5pts) vs FC Barcelona (1st, 12pts)*
*Standings at the time of writing
Competition/Round: 2026-27 La Liga, Matchday 5
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Roony Bardghji, Frenkie de Jong (out)
Levante Outs & Doubts: Etta Eyong, Álex Primo (doubt)
Date/Time: Sunday, September 13, 2026, 4.15pm CET (Barcelona), 3.15pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 10.15am ET, 7.15am PT (USA), 7.45pm IST (India)
Venue: Estadi Ciutat de València, Valencia, Spain
Referee: Jon Ander González Cuesta
VAR: Javier Iglesias Villanueva
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), Premier Sports
1 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), Movistar (Spain), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), Premier Sports Player (UK), FanCode (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others
Following a dominant win over Feyenoord in their Champions League opener in midweek, Barcelona return to La Liga action looking to make it five wins out of five in the league as the leaders travel to the Ciutat de València Stadium for a tough road game against Levante on Sunday afternoon.
Barça face perhaps their toughest test of this early season in this one, which may sound surprising to those who don’t know the history of the Blaugrana’s visits to Levante. But the simple truth is that Sunday’s hosts just know how to cause Barça all kinds of problems, and they promise to do it again this weekend.
Levante have scored 10 goals in the last four home games against Barça, who had a different manager in each of those four visits. Ernesto Valverde, Ronald Koeman, Xavi Hernández and Hansi Flick all tried and failed to control the chaos of a trip to Levante, even though Xavi in 2022 and Flick last year both found ways to win in dramatic fashion with added-time winning goals.
Barça’s opponents have won six home games in a row going back to the end of last season, and their only home match so far this season was epic: Levante dominated Real Betis and deservedly won 5-2 with a brilliant performance, and were absolutely lethal with their high pressing and set piece threat.
They are one of the few teams in La Liga who are truly not afraid of the mighty Catalans and will remain as aggressive as usual, and will try to match Barça’s flying attack goal for goal in what should be a very entertaining clash.
Barça are favorites, but they always suffer away to Levante and every Culer must get ready for a few heart attacks on Sunday.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Joan; Eric, Cubarsí, Martín, Espart; Fermín, Rodri, Pedri; Yamal, Raphinha, Gordon
Levante (4-5-1): Ryan; Pérez, De la Fuente, Mandi, Sánchez; Brugué, Bardeli, Rey, Olasagasti, Fernández; Romero
PREDICTION
Every Barça game away to Levante is always wild, and this one won’t be different. I’m still picking the visitors to find a way, but this will be tough, crazy and full of goals: 4-2 Barça.
