Barcelona paid the price for poor starts in both halves with a 5-4 loss to 15th placed Levante.
This was a chaotic match which highlighted how integral Lionel Messi is to Barcelona. The responsibility he has on his shoulders is huge, but he delivers consistently throughout the season. Ernesto Valverde’s main task for the future will be reducing this and ensuring that the team can produce results without their talisman. Philippe Coutinho will be important in this because he was Barcelona’s best player against Levante. At times it seemed like he was the only one with the necessary drive and determination to produce a result.
The team, especially the defence, deserve criticism for this performance. They looked amateurish at times because they pressed as individuals and didn’t keep their shape defensively. This made it easy for Levante to play out of their own half and cut open Barca. Most teams would have thrived with the amount of space and gaps that the Catalans provided.
This has been a great season, there is no doubt about that. They won the domestic double and set the record for the longest unbeaten run in La Liga. However, losing at this stage in this way to these opponents leaves a sour taste. It will have a significant influence on the short-term memory of this season. This does little to help Valverde’s reputation; the loss to Roma, in the Champions League, was much easier to stomach with an unbeaten season. Without that, his decision-making in parts of the season will be severely questioned.
First Half
Barcelona started the game quickly with multiple chances as they aimed to get a quick goal. However, Levante absorbed this pressure well and were the first team on the scoresheet. Jose Morales took advantage of some slack defending to run to the byline and fire the ball across which Emmanuel Boateng converted.
More from Analysis
- FC Barcelona vs Betis Player Ratings
- How can Xavi unlock Joao Felix for FC Barcelona?
- Where does Joao Cancelo fit for FC Barcelona?
- Three takeaways from Barcelona’s 4-3 win at Villarreal
- Barcelona vs Cádiz Player Ratings from a 2-0 win
This had a huge effect on both teams because Barca lost all confidence while Levante were enlivened. They kept cutting through Barcelona with precision and looked threatening against a shaky defence missing three regulars. The Catalans did occasionally threaten, but they were slow to get back to their defensive shape. They were also poor with their counter-pressing, so they vacated space but weren’t able to stop the progression of the ball.
Thomas Vermaelen picked up a hamstring injury around the 30th minute, so Gerard Pique was forced to come on. In the time it took for him to come on, Levante scored after shambolic defending. Boateng was played in by Sasa Lukic, and he was available to round the keeper and hold off Nelson Semedo to score.
This goal, and Pique’s appearance, brought a response from the team. They put on some sustained pressure with Coutinho conjuring a goal to halve the deficit going into half-time.
Next: 3 talking points ahead of Levante vs Barcelona
Second Half
The hard work to end the first half was immediately undone as Barcelona quickly conceded two more goals. Enes Bardhi scored a wonderful effort from outside the box, and Boateng finished his hat-trick on the counter. Conceding Bardhi’s goal was understandable, but the defence was out of shape once again for Boateng’s third.
They didn’t learn their lesson, either, because Bardhi finished another counter-attack not long after. This made the score 5-1 to the hosts. It was a terrible performance up to this point, but they did recover. Barcelona managed to control possession for large spells after this which allowed them to stay in Levante’s half. This pressure told because Ousmane Dembele’s deflected pass fell into the path of Coutinho who fired home.
The Brazilian wasn’t finished, though, because he improvised a stunning effort from outside the box not long afterwards in the 64th minute. This provided hope of an unbelievable comeback with the psychological edge swinging in favour of Barcelona. Paco Lopez’s men started to falter under the waves of attacks from the Catalans. This led to mistakes and Barcelona were able to win a penalty after Sergio Busquets was fouled, which Luis Suarez duly converted.
They had 20 minutes left to find the equaliser and salvage the unbeaten record. Levante started to assert themselves more, though, as they realised that they were their own worst enemy by playing deep. This led to multiple chances for both teams to score. One of the Levante defenders nearly scored an own goal and they had a great chance on the counter which they somehow didn’t convert. However, neither team were able to score another goal with Levante seeing the game out well to end Barcelona’s impressive domestic run.