Barcelona beat Levante 4-2 in Valencia to keep perfect La Liga start

Early control and Yamal double

Barcelona extended their winning start in La Liga to five matches with a 4-2 victory against Levante at the Ciutat de Valencia stadium on Sunday. Hansi Flick's side opened the scoring in the fifth minute when 19-year-old Xavi Espart struck from the edge of the area, helped by a deflection. Espart, a midfielder deployed at left-back, scored his first goal for the club. Barcelona doubled their advantage in the 19th minute after Raphinha rounded goalkeeper Mathew Ryan and squared for Lamine Yamal to finish into an empty net. Yamal added his second goal shortly after the interval from the penalty spot, having won the spot-kick himself. The forward has now recorded three doubles across his last three La Liga matches.

Defensive lapse and Levante fightback

Levante, unbeaten in eight home matches prior to Sunday, created opportunities during the first half despite the early deficit. Goalkeeper Joan Garcia denied Roger Brugue, while Petar Ratkov missed another opening for the hosts. Levante finished the first half with six shots to Barcelona's three.

Levante6

Barcelona3

Levante

6

Barcelona

3

Data from the article text

The home side capitalized on a defensive error with 12 minutes remaining when an errant pass from Espart allowed Ivan Romero to round Joan Garcia and score. With two minutes left, Brugue broke through multiple challenges to narrow the scoreline to 3-2. The visitors secured the win in the 93rd minute when substitute Karim Adeyemi completed a solo run, beating Ryan to seal the points.

Reactions from the Barcelona camp

Following the match, Barcelona defender Eric Garcia commented on the team's loss of control during the closing stages.

“It was a hard game, we did make it harder for ourselves than it needed to be. But it has to teach us something -- if you give any opponent a bit of breathing room they get on top of you.”

Barcelona manager Hansi Flick noted that the team needed to improve despite securing the victory.

“It was not our best game of course. We had a great start. In the second half we struggled a little bit. We have to fight to improve. It's normal, we have situations we have to make better, much better. We'll tell the team and go on to the next match, but with the result I'm happy.”

The result keeps Barcelona at the top of La Liga with five wins from five matches, three points ahead of Real Madrid. Barcelona play their next league fixture against Racing Santander on Wednesday.

Action across European leagues

Elsewhere in Europe on Sunday, Atletico Madrid won 3-0 at Real Sociedad with late goals from Alejandro Grimaldo, Jonathan David and Giuliano Simeone. In the Bundesliga, RB Leipzig defeated Hamburg 5-0 with goals from Antonio Nusa, Christopher Nkunku, Tidiam Gomis, Willi Orban and Romulo. Bayern Munich earned a 2-1 win at promoted Elversberg through Lennart Karl and Harry Kane, while Maurice Krattenmacher scored for the hosts. In Italy, Sassuolo defeated Juventus 3-2 through a 94th-minute winner from Vasilike Adzic, after Edon Zhegrova scored twice for Juventus alongside earlier goals from Sebastiano Esposito and Kieron Bowie. Napoli beat Bologna 1-0 with a goal from Stanislav Lobotka, while Paris Saint-Germain won 1-0 at Brest in Ligue 1 via a 25-yard strike from Ferran Torres.